Le jardin secret

“A group of people pass through the forest, bird-watching. Their excursion, which provides a way of escaping reality and seeking the beauty of existence, lasts from early morning till late at night. As the cyclical tour advances, the atmosphere becomes unclear, the people ultimately transformed into wanderers. They hang around a place, stirring under leaves, knocking at trees. Occasionally someone disappears in the woods for a period of time, only to join the group again in another forest.

Now and then an animal appears, observed by the group, while mist starts to rise and fill all the screens, followed by a mini-drama. The plot brings about a sense of uncertainty and threat. With the end of a mini-drama, the image automatically returns to the wandering in the woods. It is a tour doomed to failure, in which the inability to change the status quo is translated into attempts to talk to birds and nature.

At the end of their long tour, the wanderers end up at a dump, populated by seagulls. The number of birds suddenly increases and they start attacking the group. The only sound to be heard is a very loud screeching, and as suddenly as they came, the birds take off and disappear, after which the tour starts over from the beginning.”
(Lydia Schouten)

Lydia Schouten was born in Leiden, Holland in 1948. Today she lives and works in Rotterdam: she is a representative of the first generation of Dutch performance and video artists and has featured at numerous international exhibitions. Le Jardin Secret is being presented in Budapest for the first time.