Luc Courchesne

Video Excerpt: The Visitor Living by Numbers (by Luc Courchesne)

“The Visitor – Living by Numbers” – 2001

About “The Visitor – Living by Numbers"

“The Visitor: Living by Numbers is inspired by Pier-Paolo Pasolini’s 1969 film Theorema and by a dream Courchesne’s daughter had when she was 10 years old. In the installation, visitors are planted somewhere in the Japanese countryside. From there they will try to make a life for themselves by saying any number between one and twelve to indicate the direction they want to go or to show interest in people and what they have to say. Exploring the territory, happening upon and entering a shelter, meeting and dealing with the inhabitants and gaining status within the group will define a visitor’s experience. Leaving the place and the inhabitants to themselves (as in Pasolini’s film) or being forced to escape after an earthquake (as in his daughter’s dream) will further characterize the visitor’s experience.

The experience starts in daytime, in the middle of rice fields just north of Ogaki-City in central Japan (Gifu Prefecture). In the inner garden of a low building, visitors will happen upon a woman preparing tea. This first encounter may lead to an invitation to diner where a mixed group of people (6) prepare and share a Japanese style stew (nabet). The diner is endless but conversations with dining partners may bring a visitor to spare moments in the intimacy of one’s room where he or she is offered the host’s mind and thoughts on different topics growing increasingly personal. In the process, a visitor builds a position in the group that either will have him invited to take more place among the group, or gradually ignored and abandoned. Meanwhile, night has come and the risk of an unforgiving event in this earthquake prone area is more tangible. If such a thing was to happen, destroying the shelter and forcing everyone out, visitors would, depending on their status, be left behind or invited to join in the chaotic and confuse quest for a new place where every aspect of this group’s life will resume in the same way as if nothing had happened.”

Notes on “The Visitor – Living by Numbers”

Inspired by the film “theorema” (1969) and the dream his 10-year old daughter had.