Snail Logic - Traveling Correspondence

From 2008 to 2011, Anne Calas traveled through the twenty arrondissements of Paris, then in twenty cities in France and Europe. These destinations are located on a spiral-shaped path with Paris at the center. It sends forty letters to about twenty correspondents who agree to respond to him. The work which retraces this journey takes the form of a book reproducing the complete letters of Anne Calas and her correspondents, accompanied by a CD on which appear the artistic collaborations occasioned by the project (soundscapes and videos). Over the course of the stages, Anne Calas' letters become veritable letter-objects whose plastic poetry accompanies that of words. They bear witness to the great escape of a diligent letter writer who patiently draws its own mapping. The correspondents' responses, their sometimes sendings spontaneous, their silences, construct this choral book. Respecting the chronology of the journey, the structure is that of an epistolary novel, the Literary exchanges trace in filigree the initiatory path of an artist who confronts the world in a poetic way. Soundscapes, each lasting two to three minutes, are composed from recordings made during the trips. These soundscapes are produced by the musician Alain Lafuente in collaboration with Anne Calas. Much more than a travel report, these are poetic constructions which explore sound material as an additional displacement. The CD attached to the book also contains two videos made by Camille de Galbert, the first in the framework of a shared residency by Anne Calas, Camille de Galbert, Alain Lafuente and François Veyrunes (choreographer) at the Pistoletto Foundation in Italy. This stage was the only collective experience of a solitary journey. The second video is Camille de Galbert's response to Letter No. 36 sent from Cork by Anne Calas.