II.  THE HABITAT - ACT I 'THE DROWNING’

#5 In the wet valley
The Camargue is an emblem of the nature and culture of the territory. Framed by the Alpilles, the massifs of Marseille and the costières of Nîmes, the Camargue is as much a valley as it is a wetland. Just outside the oasis of the Marais du Vigueirat, it abruptly meets the plain of the Crau, born of the Durance river, it is last arid steppe in Europe. But the absense of humidity is just a trick on the eye. The valley as a whole forms, according to the indicative species,
a majestic unnamed wetland.   


#6 Deltanians, are we?
Summer in Arles is overwhelming, a tipping point for global warming. Imagine my disillusionment at being banned from swimming in the river pollution and the dangerous currents channelled by the dykes. The dykes themselves, which are brand new, are no longer accessible. Who still feels 'Deltanian' here?
A term that doesn't yet exist.



#7 Same species
Walking with local ornithologist Thomas Galewski,I noticed that the migratory birds were the same as in the delta in the Netherlands. The world's different deltas are home to similar species, spaces and networks.
Animals and plants, migratory or not, invasive or not, are in tune with the flat country that is my origin. I also realise that we know little of our own habitat.


#8 From the same spaces
Seen from satellites, the deltas look like a quilt of triangles, squares and zones, stacked layer upon layer upon layer: intensive agriculture, petrochemical industries, trading ports, military bases, logistics centres, parks and nature reserves, and a mix of wild and tourist beaches. Not to mention the cities that rule, or have ruled, the world.



#9 Caught in the net
For networks (petrochemicals, gas, water[1] , electricity, hydraulic infrastructures), the delta has the particular talent of replicating its own mesh. Like an early state of the ecosystem, these networks swarm, underground and above ground, even in the sea. They in someway unvoluntarily resemble the veins of leaves, the roots of canopies, the lungs of a cybernetic body, of times past, pushed by the currents of the delta.