je file un fil pour ma fille
VU.CH x Espace Mercerie, Lausanne (CH), 2024
video & sound – digitized video8, HD and 4K – 11 min

je file un fil pour ma fille (I spin a thread for my daughter) explores gestures of care and bonding – between humans and across species – with a particular attention to the power dynamics that arise in the relation to others. With footage filmed over the past three years, alternating analogue and digital, Bourlanges’s intimate video work highlights two parallel relationships; one between her and her daughter, the other between a shepherdess and her sheep. Engaged with ordinary actions, the different bodies negotiate their own agency and boundaries, both surrendering and resisting to being taken care of and becoming caregivers. The sound composition by Aimée Theriot-Ramos implements spoken words: tongue-twisters with ‘f’ alliterations evoque white noise, the first sounds we hear in the womb, while revealing patriarchal forms present in (French) language.

Video edited by Mathilde Renault
Sound composition by Aimée Theriot-Ramos
Filmed by Carmen Gray, Mathilde Renault, Marie Ilse Bourlanges
with Hannah Christina, Bambi, Freya, Witski, Coco, Marie and Zoe
Graphic design by Alix Chauvet
Digitalisation vidéo 8 by Video Projects, Carmen Gray, Brian McKenna

Curated by Agathe Naito & Rosalie Vasey
for the program Production/Reproduction of VU.CH, l’art à l’hôpital

Made possible with the support of CHUV, Canton de Vaud, and Mondriaan Fund