Transforming the landscape: "37097.48776"
In-context or out-of-context?
The installation "37097.48776" is an application of the concept of the grid, exploring framing at the largest scale. These numbers, their size (5 by 20 metres), their location and environment (on the slope of a Neolithic site), seem to be totally out of context. At the same time, however, they are precisely in context, as these numbers refer to the spatial location of the tell in the UTM (Universal Transverse Mercator) grid co-ordinate system.
So this work contains a double perspective on the meaning of on-site: first by its physical location and second through its information content. These numbers connect the local with the global: enlarging the locally made digits to the size of an international shared grid. This intervention in the landscape, with its spatial information on the tell, translates a series of numbers into a worldwide reference.
Branding the tell.
The removal of the first surface layer of the tell (the turf) without disturbing the archaeological layers beneath, is also a way to brand the site. This is a direct parallel with archaeologists when they leave a site after excavation: the place is left as an open space with disturbed earth that can be seen as scars. This act of "tattooing" the earth can also be considered as the first step of a landscape transformation.
Transforming the landscape: “37097.48776” was designed and carried out by French art/archaeologist Michaël Jasmin and was one part of a larger project carried out in the Teleorman River Valley in southern Romania in 2010. Transforming was one component of Măgura Past and Present, a project based at Cardiff University and directed by Doug Bailey and Steve Mills. Măgura was one of a number of projects within the Art-Landscape-Transformations-Project 2007-4320 that was funded by the European Union Education, Audiovisual and Culture Executive Agency Culture Programme (2007-2013).
A detailed account of Michaël’s work in Romania will be found is his publication about it:
Jasmin, M. 2013. The Brain of the Archaeologist: An Art and Archaeology Dialogue. Paris: Deux-Ponts.
For more information about Michaël and his other work, please have a look the following site:
An overview of Măgura Past and Present can be found in this print publication:
Mills, S. (ed.) Măgura: Past and Present. Cardiff: School of History and Archaeology, Cardiff University.
For other work on www.artarchaeologies.com from Măgura Past and Present see the following:
First Thing Rotated
