Nouveau Monde
Léa De Piccoli

At the beginning I’d written a whole story about this island and golf,
Something about the clichés of the sport,
The fact that it wasn’t an environment I’d grown up in,
That for me it was something elitist.
The same goes for this island,
It was the kind of place that men of power took turns occupying,
The kind of place that’s a bit exclusive, you know?
I was thinking about all this sitting on my bench,
I saw a rich family,
I saw a father with his son,
I saw a retired old man,
And then this golfer came and sat next to me.
But he just wanted to chat
So that cut me off in my thoughts.
I tried to tell you everything that happened when I was there,
My introspection, my relationship to this island, to this sport, to nature.
And now that I’ve spent hours on this bench, I realize that
It’s just a matter of perspective.

fantasy

masculine noun

Idea, imaginary representation suggested by the unconscious.

I didn’t know what to expect when I went to this island, but I have to admit that it made me fantasise a bit. On the one hand, I think that in the collective imagination, an island is a place that makes you fantasise. The collective imagination of an island is between Robinson Crusoe, Vendredi ou la Vie sauvage, Di Caprio in The Beach, the Malaparte Villa in Le Mepris. It’s a place between fiction and reality, the myth of paradise, sand, exoticism, sun and water, boat, exclusivity, but also solitude, isolation.

I think this island was all the more exciting because of its history. I didn’t know much, if anything, about this country. I’ve never been there. The only image I have of this country was built up through stories I’ve been told. The only image I have of this island has been built up through research, information I’ve been given and historical archives. It’s quite sad, actually, and it’s a discussion I’ve had many times. I went to school in France until I was 17, and in history classes they don’t really talk to us about the Balkans, their political and economic situation, and the war that fragmented these countries. For us history at high-school stoped at the Second World War. National education often prefers to stay on the surface when it comes to certain subjects I think.

In a way, this notion of narrative, transmission, history, education and politics is deeply linked to this notion of ‘care’ and ‘perfect memories’. Choosing what we talk about, and choosing the story we tell, is political, it’s not neutral. Nothing is really neutral anyway.
I’m drifting off into my thoughts a bit, but for me it’s almost an adventure to go to this island. I’m so lucky, because there are so many possibilities open to me. The surprise of going to a place I’ve never visited before, or the disappointment of a fantasy or a preconceived idea that doesn’t actually exist.

I think that with the notion of fantasy comes the notion of expectations. That’s a question everyone asks all the time, what are your expectations. I don’t know if I have expectations, I just have “clichés”, I don’t know what to expect. I’ve tried, in vain, to imagine what I might expect, but I’ve never really known how to respond. As I said before, I have no knowledge of either the country or the island. But also, and above all, golf is a sport I’ve never played. In my imagination, it’s a social environment far removed from my own, so I have no idea what to expect. It’s a bit silly, but I think deep down I didn’t want to fall into the “clichés”. The “clichés” of the polo shirt, the white trousers, the golf cart, the "2,000 equipment. I didn’t want to get stuck in this idea that golf was an elitist, expensive, exclusive environment that lacked diversity. However, research on Brijuni’s golf course somewhat confirmed the image I had.

I’ve tried to deconstruct this image, but to be honest I have some troubles doing so at the moment. First of all, the protagonists who have controlled the island have always been men. In my opinion, this island was a bit of a way for these men to show off, extend their influence and power. And what I’ve read about Brijuni’s golf doesn’t really help: “healthy and aristocratic”, “first golf complex in the world, “most respected members of the European aristocracy”. So I can’t really remove this image I have in my head, that it’s an elitist environment not accessible to everyone.

Because of its history, the image I have of this island is something rather exclusive, elitist, because until recently, no one could access it. But that’s certainly changed somewhat now, I don’t know. In any case, an island has this notion of exclusivity inherent in its geographical definition. Not everyone can go there. It’s a bit simplistic, but you first need a bit of money and a boat. So I’m waiting to see how this place has evolved. If my thoughts are confirmed. I’m also waiting to see if the golf course contributes to the island’s exclusivity.

From what I know, the particularity of this golf course is that it’s part of a national park, so it’s not really maintained like other courses. In summer, the grass is not watered. The green is therefore never perfect but changes with the seasons, making it more or less difficult to play as it has many imperfections. The green is tended by the various species of wild animals found on the island.

So my elitist image of golf had already been somewhat deconstructed. I’m beginning to think of it more as a national park than a perfect golf green. Let’s see how it goes.

souvenir

nom masculin

A souvenir (from French ‘a remembrance or memory’),[1] memento, keepsake, or token of remembrance[1] is an object a person acquires for the memories the owner associates with it.

A souvenir can be any object that can be collected or purchased and transported home by the traveler as a memento of a visit. The object itself may have intrinsic value, or be a symbol of experience. Without the owner’s input, the symbolic meaning is lost and cannot be articulated.[2]

se souvenir

verbe pronominal

Garder la trace de quelqu’un, de quelque chose dans la mémoire, se le rappeler.
At first, I thought there was no point in writing down my memories, the way the trip went, my thoughts. In the end, I decided that writing was the only way to freeze my thoughts, along with the photos and videos. And that’s also part of the documentation work, writing is about creating a memory.

I asked myself several times, what was I trying to film in the golf course? What story did I want to tell? By going to and from the green every day and spending time there, I slowly found the answers. I think the experience was much more than just watching people playing golf and filming them. Beyond the simple video or photos that I’m going to produce, what was also important was everything that was going on around it. It was the action of walking in this national park, on this island, experiencing a certain solitude, closeness with nature, being a little removed from the world, observing, meeting people.

I still haven’t really found the words to describe this place. Of course, there’s always that elitist image and the wealthy social class that frequents the island. But that’s not all. It’s hard to put all the pieces of the puzzle together. Hotels have really become tourist attractions. At the same time, there’s the legacy of Tito, present in the architecture, the animals, the collective memory. The legacy of Kupelwieser, who developed golf and the island’s economy through infrastructures. The biologists and the notion of nature, which is also one of the main features of the island nowadays. There is this experience of solitude, introspection, probably amplified by the presence of the landscape’s picturesque quality. The notion of time is really special there, as if every day is different and disconnected from he world in a way, that’s a hard feeling to describe. Maybe it’s also because the different layers of history that have left their mark on the island are still really visible and legible, in the nature, the architecture, the stories. You lose track of time between the 1950s villa, Tito’s museum, the old zoo facilities, the safari park, the golf course, the beaches and so on.

I also remember writing something at the beginning of the semester about the creation of memory. What’s a perfect memory ? I don’t know. But by filming and writing, I hope I might be close to convey this memory through my video. Convey a message, my vision. In a way, everything was there, but it is about finding the main thread of the story and putting the pieces of the puzzle together. I spent hours on that bench and on those golf courses, and I never thought it would produce so much questioning and introspection. But I realized that it’s just a matter of perspective.