Florence Montmare (SE/US)
Midway in life, I find myself standing on the barren shores, a wild and rocky pile of land, facing the Baltic sea. A strange uncompromising attraction. I return over and over again. “No man is an island, entire of itself; every man is a piece of the continent, a part of the main.” — Meditation XVII by John Donne The overarching theme of Scenes from an Island is the human condition of displacement and transience and elemental conditions of landscape where land meets water. This is played out against Ingmar Bergman’s mise-enscène, the barren cinematic landscape on the remote island of Fårö, Sweden.
There, natural elements are stripped down and laid bare, allowing a contemplation of the rocks and water to function as a mirror, and in reflection, you are able to see an essence of yourself. This work resonates even more now because of the circumstances that we have found ourselves in. Donne’s poem speaks about the idea of nonseparation and connection. What started as a search for an authentic home through the relation to nature as a source, became a practice of alignment and being in presence.
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In a society where neutrality, secularism and individualism rules, the relationship to nature is almost religious as a way of finding connection. It is a utopian dream to coexist in harmony with nature, a relationship that is both contradictory and exclusive. “Midway in life, I found myself standing on the barren shores, a wild and rocky pile of land, facing the Baltic Sea”. Montmare had been invited to Ingmar Bergman’s residence, hidden away on the shore. At first it was only the landscape that she photographed. With time Montmare populated the images, staging scenarios in various locations. The images are interiors and exteriors; landscape sans figures and landscape with figures transitioning through. Bodies in motion contrasted to the desolate topography and its dramaturgy, mountains that have eroded, the earth, the water and the air. A contemplation on transience; body, movement and the surrounding elements. Being able to see a complete unbroken horizon is important for psychological balance. The barren shores, overlooks a horizon is broken only by a spire of an old church, windmills and some pine groves.
