by Menno Heling
🏞️ Exercise: How to? Two landscapes. One is a village landscape; the other a traditional almost arcadian landscape. The light is changing, sun and shadow hurry across the valley.
Observe these two landscapes for a few minutes and look for a ‘main character’. Who or what is playing the lead role in these scenes? For this exercise, focus on the difference between a village landscape and a natural (green) landscape. Of course it is always a cultural landscape, even though we only see trees, srubs and gras.
The locations of these two scenes are only maybe 400 meters apart, looking in another direction. Good to know! How do you feel in the first and second scene? Do you feel ‘at home’ or just visiting? To me it still feels as though I am a culture and nature ‘toerist’ and it determines how I look and how I take the time to work on my ‘tourist gaze’. Both looking at a monument and at a tree of srub (of your choosing).
🧘 Inspirational thought
Maybe cultural tourism is merely drinking a beer in the cool shadow of a cathedral. And is the connection to what is near, just the afterthought of reading about it beforehand and the processing of your anticipation or even a vague memory of a trip you took decades earlier with your parents or a student lover? How does this work in a green place, a more natural scenery?
Visiting nature or passing through and how do you visit if you are allready and always part of it? Developing the idea for this exercise made me think about the ‘mer-a-boire’ of exercises for relaxing and connecting with nature, and the lack of it when you look at (built) heritage. There must be a more sensative similarity in how we can use our senses in both a natural and a monumental setting? Any ideas of suggestions for reading? Mail me at menno@ifthenisnow.nl
🌿 Context
My video diaries increasingly focus on building a collection of these cultural landscapes, exploring different aspects of observation and contemplation. I am developing a collection of unique spots / views that together tell a story and capture the essence of this place in the French Gaume region, the Grand Est of France. First, observe these landscapes closely and precisely, twice if necessary.
Open up and embrace the power and beauty of these landscapes, using all of your senses. Slowly and consiously. Observe the landscape, practising stopping your thoughts and letting go of expectations and judgements. Simply be with yourself and quit thinking about yesterday of planning for tomorrow or even later today. You can achieve some form of meditation through observation when you find a way in and be ‘with’ the landscape.
🗺️ Filmed In:
- Pays de Montmédy and Gaume, in the Lorraine region of France
🕰️ Chapters
- 00:34 – Opening monologue about observation of Landscape 1
- 05:30 – Landscape 2
- 09:19 – Instructions for the exercise
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https://www.youtube.com/@ClosertoLandscape
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