It is ‘the Northwest Passage’ which closes this exploration of limit states with the testimony of Aline Pénitot of her mythical and dangerous crossing of the strait linking the Arctic to the Atlantic. The Northwest Passage is a sea route that connects the Pacific and the Atlantic through northern Canada and Alaska. For centuries, hoping to reach China within less miles, numerous expeditions encountered the ice at the cost of historic shipwrecks. The Passage is only passable for a few weeks per year; the rest of the year it is completely frozen. Amundsen was the first sailor to force this long maze of islands, straits and seas. Aline Pénitot joined as a crew member aboard the Baloum Gwen, a steel sailboat, anchored in the Aleutian archipelago near Russia. It was the time to sail on the floating ice, to discover the Hyperborean world, to mingle with the peoples of the far north, to rediscover the violence of the ocean. The crossing of the magnetic north pole by sail, from Alaska to Greenland, will last four months. This radio play comes from the travel diary written by Aline Pénitot throughout the expedition. While listening to bassoonist Brice Martin, Aline Pénitot heard whales, winds, ice and currents. Delphine Gardin takes care of the narration of the notebooks. A narration full of wind and poetry. Text, sound creation, editing, sound recording in Paris and Greenland: Aline Pénitot Basson: Brice Martin. Voices: Delphine Gardin, Jean Furst, Jeanne Lacland, Erna Lynge and Jérémies Jensen. A project selected as part of Du Côt des Ondes A co-production with France Culture, Sur les Docks by Irène Omelianenko. A project supported by Greenland’s Kalaalit Nunaata Radioa.
