A phantom island is an island whose existence is mentioned in atlases for a certain length of time and is then withdrawn when it is proved that it does not exist. There are many causes to explain these geographic fictions: geopolitical and economic interests, copyrights, mirages, optical illusions, human error, memes, hoaxes, legends, etc.
Having researched the subject, Stéphanie Roland reconstituted the outlines of phantom islands, which she then executed in marble, bestowing materiality and permanence on these ephemeral entities from the Western world.
Beside this, a film shows us Podesta Island, one of the last contemporary phantom islands, which is still shown on Google Earth today. Just an annotated point, with no physical territory. For a century now, numerous sources have emitted contradictory opinions as to its existence and, despite their advanced technology, geographical institutions do not have a uniform answer to this very simple-sounding question. This hybrid film, between documentary and fiction, explores the narratives relating to this island and compares the different sources in an attempt to recapture a complex, fragmented reality. How do we approach reality in a post-truth age? Are there any unknown zones left in a world that seems hyperconnected and exhaustively mapped?
Conservatoire du Littoral, Mairie de Bray-Dunes, commune de Coxyde, maison des dunes, le Camping du Perroquet, Agence Nature et Bois, Institut Géographique National Belge.
Ugo Arsac, Estelle Benazet, Flora Bernard, Lucien Bitaux, François Bonenfant, Didier Burgnies, David Chantreau, Cindy Coutant, Nicolas Delevaux, Guillaume Deman, Poeny Derom, Daniel Dobbels, Siobhán Donoghue, Flore Figuière, Famille Fano, Samuel Fleury, Claire et Philippe Goffe, Nicolas Goffe, Nicolas Gourault, Marie-Christine Hubinont, Samuel Lecocq, Antoine Legardinier, Marco Mariani, Kendra McLaughlin, Cambyse Naddaf, Ludivine Pelé, Viviane Pepin, Matías Piñeiro, Enrique Ramirez, Céleste Rogosin, Ines Sieulle, Ana Elena Tejera, Blandine Tourneux, Jean-Benoit Ugeux, Sébastien et Sandrine Vanderweerden, Madeleine Vandooren, Claire Williams.
Avec le support de l’Ecole Centrale de Lille, la Fédération Wallonie-Bruxelles et de Google Earth Studio.
Stéphanie Roland is a Belgian-Micronesian visual artist based in Brussels who regularly exhibits her work internationally. Her projects have been presented in major institutions such as the Louvre, the Benaki Museum, Bozar, MIT, Le Botanique, MOPLA and Wiels, and at the Kampala International Biennale of Art. In 2017 she took part in the group show at the Antarctica Pavilion at the 57th Venice Biennale, where she presented her film Deception Island in world première. Her films have been selected for international festivals including the Rencontres Internationales Paris/Berlin, Venice and FID Marseille.
