Stéphanie Lagarde &
»They’ve all known each other for as long as they’ve existed. As long as they’ve existed and even before. They whisper in each other’s ears, they exchange particles.« A female voice speaks, referring to ›them‹ [orig. elles]. But who are ›they‹? The voice changes. The boundaries between individual identities blur. The narrator has many voices and forms – she is sensual entity, forest, filmmaker, mother, beetle, fungi. She is a collective, a conglomeration of existences interwoven with one another, both human and non-human. She wanders through experimental, sometimes blurred close-ups. Dreamlike scenes that challenge the viewers' perception. »She can’t find her way back. The tracks have been covered – covered by whom?«
In Extra Life (and Decay), Stéphanie Lagarde deconstructs the anthropocentric gaze. She fragments images that are difficult to grasp and which have originated in collective cooperation, to unfold a narrative that withdraws from the subject-centred perspective. Based on her research on arboreal communities and public custodial structures, she observes how strategies of ›fragmentation‹ and ›simplification‹ become a risk for human beings and nature. Lagarde imagines a fictitious, cross-species rebellion; human and non-human participants join to form a community that opposes the forces of exploitation and immanent collapse. She reminds us that we are part of a larger, sensitive network, in which every species is dependent upon the others, and invites viewers to reconsider hospitality and dependence – as ›interspecific diplomacy‹, as an empathetic negotiation of shared coexistence. »She is a house. She offers herself up to the collective digestion. She is continuum, necromass, rot, the dead and the living. She is eaten.« (Fabienne Bonus)
With the support of: Ecole Supérieure d'Art de Clermont Métropole, La Fondation des Artistes - FNAGP, Centre National des Arts Plastiques ADAGP and Lafayette Anticipations - Fondation Galeries Lafayette
