16. Alexandre

We met in late June in Delhi and took the flight to Varanasi together, a few days later. Alexandre is a writer and journalist from Neuchâtel (a city in the French speaking region of Switzerland). He was among the artists who received a scholarship for a period of time at the Varanasi studios. His stay would be shorter than mine, since he shared his scholarship with colleagues. As we jointly discovered this world, new to both of us, I had the opportunity to see the city though a different pair of eyes, through his poetic ways of facing reality.
    Alexandre assisted me with video recordings of my performances in town. While «on the set», he was facing difficulties, since recording requires full concentration and he could not answer the many questions of the curious passers, gesturing to them his inability to enter distracting conversations. For days following the recording, many of the young men who linger around Thulsi and Assi Ghat and were hence caught on tape, kept asking us what the recordings were all about, and what kind of movie we were going to produce.
    On his experience with our joint work, Alexandre wrote a very poetic note in French.

tulsi ghât

assise les cheveux laissés au hasard du vent
elle griffonne
mécaniquement
du tissu

on commence par elle
nesa gschwend artiste rebelle d'Helvétie
on l'entend déjà protester
elle ne veut pas être l'image
elle aimerait que le passage
le mouvement du bord
de gange
crée
le rire
l'inquiétude

on reste là en inventant des signes
un paquet de gémissements sur tissu
ensuite eux les habitants, les légitimes du ghât
font ce qu'ils savent faire
déambuler
“attendre/oublier” écrivait Maurice Blanchot
peut-être que cela
peut-être déjà cela
artisane guerrière
ou juste fantôme illusion
à nous spectateurs de choisir
certains en la voyant songeront
à une méduse
à un albatros
à un chien errant

artiste, voyageur, curieux d'Inde
on se frotte les yeux
de délectation et d'incompréhension
face à tant de dieux
et de bouteilles en plastique remplies
pour garder une goutte de Gange sur les genoux

à varanasi humblement
le regard fixe
un brin mélancolique
nesa laisse les autres la contempler
sans la comprendre
on peut penser qu'elle érige
une frontière de plus entre les peuples
mais elle se rend simplement sur un lieu pour être avec
tout en restant seule
renvoyant l'humain à sa pauvre condition
qu'il soit
ethnologue ou mendiant
alexandre caldara


tulsi ghât (English adaptation)

sitting, her hair a toy to the wind
mechanically
scribbling
on a cloth

let's start with her
nesa gschwend, rebellious Swiss artist
one can hear her protest already
she does not want to be the image
she would love the current
the flow along the banks
of the ganges
creating
the smile
restlessness

she rests, inventing signs
a parcel of complains on cloth
then they, the locals, those owning the ghât
do what they know to do
hang around
«waiting/forgetting», wrote Maurice Blanchot
maybe just that
maybe that already
artist-warrior
or simply a phantom, an illusion
for us onlookers to decide
some, seeing her, consider her 
a jellyfish
an albatross
a stray dog

artist, traveller, curious of India
we rub our eyes
with delight and incomprehension
facing so many gods
and filled plastic bottles
to keep a drop of Ganges on the knees

in varanasi, humbly
staring
a touch of melancholy
nesa lets the others contemplate her
not understanding her
we may think she puts up
one more border between peoples
but she simply puts herself in a place to be with them
while staying alone
confronting man with his bleak condition
be he
ethnologist or beggar

alexandre caldara