Art and the Mountain
“Les Phonies Bergères” takes place in the Valley D’Aspe every two years. It’s a festival of arts covering music, sculpture, theatre and literature that provides an opportunity for the people of these remote settlements to access, first hand, the works of professional artists and performers of high standing. All festivals, these days, seem obliged to adopt a theme and, this year, with the arrival of the new railway from Bedous to Oloron, the apt choice was Paysage en Mouvement, “moving landscape”. The title enfolds obvious ambiguity. Are we talking about the passage of seasons through the mountain environment or a socio-economic journey? Should we consider the physical changes to the landscape, as in the chemin de fer; the animals and people travelling through; the ecology of the region or, indeed, the passage of time as described by history? The phrase itself - Paysage en mouvement - is triple-edged. Apart from the literal translation, it can be interpreted as Pays sage, meaning “wise land”; or perhaps more challengingly but also highly relevant in todays’s world, Pay sage, which, with a little license, I would translate as “spend wisely". Put these subtleties into the mix and one certainly has the potential to provoke reflection and discussion about the issues affecting this remarkable place in which they live. Getting people to think, however, is no pushover. Obviously, Art cannot do it on its own; It needs a contribution from the audience. For it is the audience that brings the meaning. Oiseaux de Passage by Eleanor Stride. Take Eleanor Stride’s “Birds of Passage”, for example. The V-formation of birds silhouetted against the dramatic background waits inertly for a visitor. First to come, let’s say, is an ornithologist. He is pleased with the acknowledgement of migratory birds and their precarious existence, faced with unnatural incursions into their natural habitat. He is, generally, excited by the sculpture but has one or two minor technical criticisms about wing positions and so forth.