Well, my Monday meeting with Phippe and Pascal turned out to be today but that was fine. I explained many ideas waving my arms around while Adeline Michel (Médiatrice culturelle & chargée de communication & webmaster at L’H du Siege) translated, wonderfully. All in all, a good meeting I feel at home here. I just need to speak French then all will be perfect.
The biggest news since I last wrote is probably moving into studio space #2. This space is bigger and has a concrete floor. It is ideal for building and making a mess in. I am trying to resist the urge to fill the space with wood and cardboard (my usual materials)… although if I am honest, I have already scavenged some cardboard from the streets of Valenciennes.
I have been on many walks around Valenciennes and now feel like I can’t get lost. I have found my favourite place; a massive lake, my favourite building; a disused water tower, and my favourite vending machine that dispenses baguettes at anytime of day! I think these will inevitably influence my work.
I have had many ideas but frustratingly little materials to make things with. So far most of my materials have come from a stationary shop in the centre that is closing down. It has 70% discounts (!) and I have been making many tiny houses and playing around with natural structures. Now I have no more need for paper, card and ink. A slightly distressing realisation that charity and pound shops don’t exist here and the stuff that I ordered from the catalogue still hasn’t arrived and the difficulty that everything that I buy I need an invoice for, means that my new studio space has been quite empty.
But change is upon me. Yesterday, I walked out of Valenciennes and stumbled upon the great and surreal world of Lidl. So today, Sylvie Houriez (Médiatrice culturelle at L’H du Siege) very kindly gave me a lift to the out-of-the-ordinary supermarket where I managed to get 90m of foil, 30m of clingfilm, a 7kg vice, 2 amazing fishing rods, and lots of fishing weights and hooks. The list of peculiar objects I want is ever growing but at least now I am acquiring some things. Fingers crossed tomorrow will bring the arrival of my catalogue order.
