A Journey That Wasn't

The film A Journey That Wasn’t is based on two phases of the same project, which began in early 2005. "Assuming that a zone of non-knowledge must exist geographically and that a breach is possible in the overlapping narratives concerning a territory", Pierre Huyghe undertook an expedition to Antarctica, where the melting of the sea ice has revealed new islands and accelerated changes in the fauna. He sails aboard Jean-Louis Étienne’s former sailing ship, Tara, with a team comprising artists and scientists. Once ashore, he translates the island’s shape into sound and light waves, which will subsequently give rise to a musical score. The pulsations, mirroring the island’s topography, create a language emanating from the edge of a penguin colony, amongst which lives an albino penguin.

This fascinating journey into the vastness of the Arctic Circle is followed by an event taking place on the ice rink in Central Park (New York), where a symphony orchestra performs the musical composition. The intensity of the sound triggers variations in light, at times illuminating the dark expanse across which an automated penguin moves. Both the surface and the masses emerging from it are subjected to precipitation (rain, wind, fog).

A science-fiction documentary film, A Journey That Wasn’t immerses the viewer in an odyssey that is as much visual as it is auditory.