Geopoetics

GEOPOETICS is an immersive multidisciplinary exhibition proposal across the Irish territory.
Born from the desire to mix art and science, our initiative is to propose a testimony of the land : water, flora, stone, myths, affect, scientific data of a place. We work with 3 different mediums to express the different layers of the landscape felt.

  • Hannah Papacek Harper
    Director
  • Dorian Blanc
    Producer
  • Project Type:
    Installation
  • Runtime:
    40 minutes
  • Completion Date:
    August 15, 2024
  • Production Budget:
    32,219 EUR
  • Country of Origin:
    France
  • Language:
    English
  • Student Project:
    No
  • Interface 2024
Director Biography - Hannah Papacek Harper

Graduated in Aesthetics and Cinema Practice, from the universities of Paris-1 Sorbonne Pantheon, and Lima, Peru in 2015, Hannah has been directing since 2019. Initially a Steadicamer, she started by telling stories through the moving image. Now both a writer and a director, she is developing two feature documentaries dealing with the subject of ecology. Having grown up in the Perche countryside in France, she feels deeply invested in this issue. Profoundly interested in communication, transmission and sensorial approaches to film, her experimental video production and photography allow her to create creative collaborations around these subjects. She works with the dance company Association Mouvement Artrope for filmed interventions in centers for people with disabilities since 2019 in Normandy. Her creations, as well as her photographs, are shown in the performance exhibition/installation 'Vu d'ici ! // Aller voir ailleurs...' at the Muséales de Tourouvre au Perche in 2020, as well as in Falaise the same year. Her documentary photography has been exhibited several times, notably as an artist's book (Elles Respirent Toujours) at the Cartier-Bresson Foundation in Paris in 2017, which was subsequently purchased by the Queensland State Library to be held in their permanent collection. In 2022 she exhibited her alternative cartography project The Persistence of Red at the Anglo- American University in Prague. In 2021, her experimental short film Vegetative won three awards in alternative international film festivals. She is accompanied by Rétroviseur Productions since 2019 for her documentary Chainon Manquant (teaser) and by Lillith Films since 2022 for her feature film in development: The Silence of Fire.

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Director Statement

In discovering Ireland in 2017, I felt the wind, the sun, the earth and the rock. I knew that this was a place that operated, with deepest part of its bone structure, some sort of magic. This was a magic I was eager to participate in. On each return I wondered what spell I could concoct to connect to this soil, to this enchantment which is the ancient land of Ireland. It is 5 years later, after delving deeper into emotional cartography projects that I found where I wanted to position myself to express something about Ireland. I wanted to talk about the elements, understand its layers, look for the impacts of a language, look at the myths, legends, but also the science to comprehend this place. But as my focus has oriented itself more precisely toward looking at our human impact on a landscape and how we approach conservation, I felt my interest flow toward this area.
The mystery I wanted to penetrate was not only “what makes Ireland what it is ?” but also “how have we, as
humans, claimed our place there ?” How have we moved the land, ignored the nature, used it, exploited it ? And now, how can we return to a deeper connection to it and what for ?
Posing these questions to scientists, researchers, artists and inhabitants of Ireland, I was able to dive deep into the reasons why they connect to their landscape and bring out emotional stories. This is where this map of Ireland begins: as a collective force at the crossroads of art, science and emotion.

This project is a choral one on all levels. It brings together a larger group of artists from different disciplines and horizons to work together in a creative way. An animator, an immersive sound designer, a director of photography, an underwater camera operator... and other artists, are coming together to bring their expertise and vision to the final piece. I will orchestrate the narrative while working collaboratively with each participant.
As I did the first field trip in summer 2022, I was searching for an approach to describing the geomorphology (shape and composition) of Ireland. It was through the multiplicity of interviews that I came to realise that the ‘artist’s’ gaze carried something for each and everyone of us. Scientists above all were searching for different ways to visualise their work and transmit it to a general public. We are in the era of citizens’ science and yet everything we read, hear and see is still very much disconnected from our emotional selves.
Through the mapping, I want the public to be able to feel, hear, see and be washed over by sensations while witnessing this piece. My hope is that they can leave with scientific facts, creative input, images and feelings. They will gain knowledge on many levels and be more aware of the ground on which they stand every day. More connected to this breathing organism which is the Earth.