Gander airport (Newfoundland) was built in the late 1950s. The modernist spirit of the age is apparent in its furniture by influential designers such as Ray and Charles Eames and RobinBush, a commissioned mural by the Canadian painter Kenneth Lochhead and a terrazzo floor with motifs reminiscent of Mondrian. These strategic aesthetic choices contribute to presenting a progressive image of Canada to travellers in transit for whom, in most cases, the airport would be their only contact with the country. However, this refuelling stopover necessary for intercontinental flights quickly became obsolete thanks to the rapid progress made in aeronautics. Today the imposing lounge in the international area is practically deserted; only the American armed forces and a few dignitaries flying on private airplanes pass through it on occasion.

The diptych presents alternate shots of the lounge and a smokers’ room. During the filming, deposited on the floor, a bottle barely started with a greenish drink, with an Arabic writing label – recalling the use of the place by American soldiers in transit to or from an oversea mission. This discrete presence hovers the lounge. It is punctuated by stickers of various tactical forces placed here and there in the terminal. The two images that run in synchronicity are close to a drift, a reverie, a second state of a hypothetical occupant.