Obsolete Terrain

2021 | Four-channel video and sound installation

12 Minutes, loop | H264 | Salvaged screens and steel fence, silk, cider box

In the video installation Obsolete Terrain four performers on several screens play characters that hang out in an abandoned site somewhere in the green fields. As they discuss an apple tree in the distance, their views on nature and ecological values are drawn out through their conversations while the performers each take turns in these roles, re-enacting the scenes again and again. In this network of opinions and perspectives, the spectator enters the installation as another part of this social circle and encounters, both the characters’ diverging views and their own. Blurring the lines between time, space and personhood, Suzan Noesen here foregrounds how such roles are constructed and unfold within the group dynamic. As each performer switches character, the reiteration of scenes evolves into the interaction of diverse and ambiguous types: the militant ecologist (the progressive in the script), the romantic, the pragmatic (the moderator in the script) or the entrepreneur (the traditional in the script). Obsolete Terrain approaches the current ecological crisis as a social body, which serves as a starting point towards a new consciousness of nature and the human. All the while, the apple tree, caught between its cultural and agricultural history, remains firmly at the centre of the work, transforming under the pressure of this society of characters.

Cast: Céline Camara, Fábio Godinho, Julie Kieffer, Philippe Meyrer
Production and Direction Assistant: Alix Andries
Director of Photography: Olivier Koos
Sound: Tom Biren
Location Manager: Frederico Majerus
Color Correction: Pascal Oberlin
Technical construction: Frank Meiers – Amplitude
Poster Design: Michael Jachner

Video funding: Ministère de la Culture, Luxembourg
Installation funding: Rotondes / Casino Luxembourg