Real Remnants of Fictive Wars II

This series of five films directed in 2004 by Cyprien Gaillard showcases picturesque landscapes animated by smoke explosions. The clouds caused by the artist come from powder fire extinguishers, the triggering of which brings a disturbance to the image. The artist speaks of "vandalism" to refer to this act, whose traces in nature are harmful and without purpose. Each episode takes place in a different landscape.

The second part is set at the exit of a railway tunnel. From this site, which evokes 19th-century painting, a white atmospheric mass escapes before filling the entire screen. Brought in with a crossfade, the second part of the film captures the same explosion, but in a wider shot, from a low angle. Played in reverse, the film then seems to depict an impressionist landscape of gorges before the smoke dissipates in the tunnel.

The fifth segment is, on the other hand, a back-and-forth tracking shot from an 18th-century balustrade balcony towards an English garden. It is in a tree located in the foreground that the explosion is triggered. During the camera movement, the tree is gradually engulfed in white before appearing as if burnt.
In both cases, the use of film to make these movies is a reference to Robert Smithson's films, which had developed in cinema an equivalence with his interventions in nature. But it is also explained by the desire to use a technology in the process of obsolescence with the advent of digital.