Trévarez

I worked with the Domaine de Trévarez again this year, translating texts for their new exhibitions, and made a visit yesterday with my friend Jeanne to see the artistic creations in the flesh and to enjoy the gardens - plenty of colour already in evidence - in superb spring weather.

We had a good walk all round and then tea and cake in the courtyard café area. Brought back memories of working for the National Trust at Stourhead.

Trévarez and Batbox

I've been working on translations for the exhibition Batbox by Erik Samakh which opened at the Chateau de Trévarez on Saturday. First I did the information panels for the exhibition, and now there's a long discussion between the artist and an art historian to complete for the catalogue.

It's been an interesting job, and seeing the whole thing in situ at the weekend was even more so. The Batbox installation is basically a blackout of the huge stables room, with a mulched floor and the sounds of bats, transferred from the chateau itself which is inhabited by a protected colony of Greater horseshoe bats.

What was even more striking than the echoing bat calls and wing-strokes was the reaction of human beings - not to the bats, but to each other in conditions of almost total darkness. It revealed our virtually complete spatial ignorance and a deep rooted fear of moving without seeing. People were bumping into each other, putting out tentative hands to feel rather than sense a clear way ahead, far more aware of other bodily presence to be avoided than the absent presence of the bats themselves.