Editorial 2023

The video works presented since the beginning of the OVNi Festival are fireflies that speak a language that we miss.

We want a programme that takes us through the night and the tumult. Each of the artistic invitations is a way of learning to recognise the murmur of visible and invisible worlds, of imagining constellations to which only the artists have the keys.

“The Whisper of the Stars”* expresses the tremor of this 9th edition of OVNi, the year that symbolically marks 60 years of video art.

The proposals made to the public by the Festival and its partners on the occasion of this new edition translate the inventive power of video in the creation, description and deciphering of experiences of worlds. Whatever their performative horizon, the artists’ points of view share the revelation of our modes of existence. The characteristics of their voices compose arrangements that allow us to access the extra- ordinary through the ordinary.

OVNi is the place where all the private and public, national and international initiatives meet to disseminate and defend creation, that of video art, and to accompany the artists, whether their voices are thunderous, whispered or silent.

Nathalie Amae

Notes

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*The expression « The Whisper of the Stars » comes from the astral mythology of Yakutia. A young shaman is said to have performed a rite to create the constellations to save her people from the cold breath of night. However, the latter gives rise to astonishing phenomena. When human speech or the breath of the earth rustles in the air at minus 40°C, it crystallises, remains in suspension for a moment and sings. The moment they touch the ground, a tinkling sound is created that the Yakutes call « the whisper of the stars ». Above 50°C, it is a roar between the ears akin to the inner spiritual sound that makes the « sound of silence » heard. The Yakutes, originally called « Sakha » or Saxa, are originally from the Altai. Their territory (Sakha Autonomous Republic, located in Eastern Siberia in the central Lena River basin) has experienced the use of nuclear bombs for intense deforestation, the creation of water reservoirs for diamond mines and the sterilisation of water downstream. Permafrost in this region is an indicator of climate change.