Gif
A screenshot of a landscape of Soule (Northern Basque Country) from Google ViewTM is darkened and barred vertically by three sets of stripes, blue, white and red. White noise is added to the composition, giving the landscape an artificial vibration. The image is transformed into a gif for mobile phone. Theatre events in the form of "landscape play" or pastorals from Soule (Northern Basque Country) are one of the oldest forms of culture in the Basque Country. They are speculated to have their origins in the miracle plays of the Middle Ages. Originally lasting two days, they were shortened to a single day, and then, at the beginning of the twentieth century, to six hours (an afternoon). Performed outdoors, the pastorals are dependent on sudden Atlantic changes of weather. The scenographic device is rather simple, consisting of a wooden stage built in a field, with as background a pictorial breakthrough on the surrounding pasture mountains. Three doors allow for movements between the stage and the backstage: a red door (hell) a blue door (heaven), and in the middle, a white door (for, according to different academic sources, light, snow, passage and/or purification). In the work, these doors have turned into a triple vertical stripe-like glitch.
Idauze-Mendi is a village in the Pyrénées-Atlantiques department in south-western France (Northern Basque-Country). It is located in the former province of Soule. Being born and growing up on the Basque Coast, I used, as a kid, to partake every year in spring camps in this inland part of the region.
