None of us should be present to see and hear them. Neither you, unless you are very very young, nor me, nor even the artist who recorded them. In Rennes, a somewhat crazy future archive project has been launched by director Philippe Baron. Accustomed to documentary format, the Breton recorded 35 video testimonies which he compiled on a hard drive. These hours of interviews conducted over the past three years have been archived with clear and firm instructions. They cannot be unveiled until 2100. Only a very small part will be disclosed for Heritage Days.
Born in 2019 in the mind of the artist, this project took an unexpected turn with the arrival of Covid-19 but also the acceleration of events testifying to global warming. So inevitably, in the conversations recorded for future generations, there is a lot of talk about it. “There were a lot of environmental concerns, especially among young people. But that’s not all. We felt that people were choosing what they wanted to say to those who would watch them in the future,” explains Philippe Baron.
High school students imagine themselves as grandpas and grandmas
To bear witness to the reality of our life in 2022, the director filmed a three-month-old baby, a doctor, his friends, an 85-year-old grandpa and even the mayor of Rennes. But what struck him the most was the class of high school students he interviewed. “They had both concerns for the future but also the energy of 15-year-olds. They imagined what they would look like in 2100, what kind of grandpa or grandma they would be”. What will the President of the Republic look like? Will the Covid have disappeared? What will be the temperature in summer? Who will be the new Angèle or the future Mbappé?
To convince partners to follow him in this adventure of the future, Philippe Baron made a small concession. He has agreed to reveal a few short sentences from these interviews which he is presenting for the first time on the occasion of Heritage Days. Present to Departmental archives from Ille-et-Vilaine, where his 35 video capsules are stored, his “cinematorium island” offers some snippets of these secret conversations. What do we hear there? A recipe for veal blanquette, reflections around everyday objects such as banknotes or protective masks that have become so essential with the arrival of the Covid. But also a few sentences addressed to our descendants. “I took the plane without counting. I wanted to apologize if your air is very polluted”. Or. “Do you always put drinking water in your toilets? “. To have the answer, go in almost 90 years. Same day, same time, same apples.