Co-directed with filmmaker Youssef Chebbi. As the title suggests, this work is a direct reference to the work of Edith Dekyndt, including her video One Second of Silence (2008–2009), which captures the undulations of a flapping, transparent flag against a cloudy sky. In Esquisse, an instrument placed between the camera and the subject is affected by the surroundings. The fabric of a flag fluttering in the wind acts as a window onto a landscape. The fabric has become a kind of optical instrument. The camera is maximally overexposed and “burns” the landscape, but the fabric “resists” the overexposure and acts as an optical filter: it readjusts the exposure and reveals the Mediterranean sea, the Tunisian coast, behind it. The cloth of the flag is reminiscent of a cinema screen, a neutral surface with the surrounding environment seemingly projected onto it.
