For our first Pere Lachaise project, our main topic was commercialization. To introduce the people we have been basing our project on, (Oscar Wilde, Gertrude Stein, Victor Noir, Jim Morrison) we wanted to create an unusual map, one that symbolizes their mentality and persona and questions the concept of a ‘celebrity’ cemetery.
We went on and bought a second-hand book by Oscar Wilde, a collection of all his works and made a ‘hide-and-seek’ inspired book. Filmed in stop motion, we drew symbols, works and monuments afflicted with our people and recreated them in our personal interpretation. (For example: Gertrude Stein being an editor, the history of Oscar Wilde’s monument)
At the end of the drawings you can hear me reciting the words written on Oscar Wilde’s gravestone; questioning commercialization and celebrity figures which creates a juxtaposition with the Pere Lachaise.
Finishing, we displayed the transience of beauty and fame, and introduced the aspect of time. Tearing up flowers, leaves and plants previously collected at the cemetery, we display the thin line between beauty and non-beauty, between famous and non-famous, between alive and dead, between remembered and forgotten.
