[Winter 2023]
Living Creatures Found in the Night
By Yannick Marcoux
[Excerpt]
The forest doesn’t belong to us. We have chopped down its trees, hunted its animals, and polluted its rivers, but one aspect of its intrinsic forces still evades us. Like oceans, forests, though absolutely concrete, inhabited, and alive, sometimes seem intangible. Their unplumbable density is mysterious – fascinating yet frightening – and when we enter them, it’s often with great respect, as we sense that their laws rule us and their lifecycles tower over us.
With Nightlife au mont Pinacle,1 Éliane Excoffier has chosen to delve into the thick brush of a venerable forest, immersing us in the heart of nocturnal animal life. At night, we see less clearly and, as our senses of smell, hearing, and touch are not acute, we lose our mastery over the world. Excoffier thus reverses the paradigms, placing us in a position of vulnerability and openness, and invites us into a marvellous realm…
[ Complete issue, in print and digital version, available here: Ciel variable 122 – NIGHT ROUNDS ]
[ Complete article, in digital version, available here: Éliane Excoffier, Nightlife au mont Pinacle — Yannick Marcoux, Living Creatures Found in the Night ]