Je suis avant, je suis presque, je suis jamais (I am before, I am almost, I am never)
September 2020
Contemporary Art Center Parc Saint Léger, with Grace Denis, Cecilia Granara, Morgane Tschiember, Markus Martinovitch, Ian Wilson; Viriya Chotpanyavisut, Sarah Nefissa Belhadjali & Mélanie Villemot, Wura-Natasha Ogunji, Moe Satt, Ene-Liis Semper, Ghita Skali, Ip Wai Lung, Gentle Women
« I am carried by the winds, chewed by insects, rubbed by asphalt, softened by wet soils. The soils of the continents, trampled by moving bodies, are torn apart by my roots. I live an omnipresent existence. I could be met, with a certain attention, more often than others. I envelop the world, I am a pan-poetic hyper-object: I give birth to what did not exist before, in an abundant way... This dream, where I saw myself as the most widespread plant on the planet, Cyperus rotundus, is the first sequence in a series of four semi- theoretical, semi-fictional dreams, following the invitation to conceive a project at Parc Saint Léger – Centre d’art Contemporain. »
The exhibition “I am before, I am almost, I am never” is based on four semi-theoretical, semi-fictional dreams. Although dreams occur within us, they do not belong to us entirely. Their true owner is an essence situated in the in-betweenness. Taking form of a seed of the most common plant on earth, listening to a casual conversation between Donna Haraway and Aristotle about temporal qualities, facing the universal electric tree, receiving a confusing message from a stranger about the ontology of breathing.
These narratives open a horizon of existential rhetoric. The exhibition as a space of circulation triggers a reflection on the vulnerability of species, healing, power, body, individual and shared responsibility. The physical and conceptual processes of birth and disappearance convey omnipoesis as a process of bringing into being something previously nonexistent, in a local and ubiquitous way.
Our vegetal, social, animal, dreamlike, fluid, dependent, warrior, liberated, compassionate, vulnerable, autonomous, concrete presences are manifested through interior and exterior relationships that emerge in five site-specific atmospheres, a vocal body, and a visual flow of video program. Here, a new abundant psychic space emerges between us.
The dreams of Ekaterina Shchebakova are narrated by the voice of Simone Thiebot in the sound installation that creates a framework for other invitees.
Coordination: Chantal Scotton
Thanks to:
Jan Mot Gallery (Brussels), Nova Contemporary Gallery (Bangkok)
and Prisca Violati, Edouard Hascoet, Camille de Bayser, Cécile Renoult, Nicolas Audureau, Grainger Gustafson, Julia Sökeland.
Photo credits: Diane Arques
September 2020
Contemporary Art Center Parc Saint Léger, with Grace Denis, Cecilia Granara, Morgane Tschiember, Markus Martinovitch, Ian Wilson; Viriya Chotpanyavisut, Sarah Nefissa Belhadjali & Mélanie Villemot, Wura-Natasha Ogunji, Moe Satt, Ene-Liis Semper, Ghita Skali, Ip Wai Lung, Gentle Women
« I am carried by the winds, chewed by insects, rubbed by asphalt, softened by wet soils. The soils of the continents, trampled by moving bodies, are torn apart by my roots. I live an omnipresent existence. I could be met, with a certain attention, more often than others. I envelop the world, I am a pan-poetic hyper-object: I give birth to what did not exist before, in an abundant way... This dream, where I saw myself as the most widespread plant on the planet, Cyperus rotundus, is the first sequence in a series of four semi- theoretical, semi-fictional dreams, following the invitation to conceive a project at Parc Saint Léger – Centre d’art Contemporain. »
The exhibition “I am before, I am almost, I am never” is based on four semi-theoretical, semi-fictional dreams. Although dreams occur within us, they do not belong to us entirely. Their true owner is an essence situated in the in-betweenness. Taking form of a seed of the most common plant on earth, listening to a casual conversation between Donna Haraway and Aristotle about temporal qualities, facing the universal electric tree, receiving a confusing message from a stranger about the ontology of breathing.
These narratives open a horizon of existential rhetoric. The exhibition as a space of circulation triggers a reflection on the vulnerability of species, healing, power, body, individual and shared responsibility. The physical and conceptual processes of birth and disappearance convey omnipoesis as a process of bringing into being something previously nonexistent, in a local and ubiquitous way.
Our vegetal, social, animal, dreamlike, fluid, dependent, warrior, liberated, compassionate, vulnerable, autonomous, concrete presences are manifested through interior and exterior relationships that emerge in five site-specific atmospheres, a vocal body, and a visual flow of video program. Here, a new abundant psychic space emerges between us.
The dreams of Ekaterina Shchebakova are narrated by the voice of Simone Thiebot in the sound installation that creates a framework for other invitees.
Coordination: Chantal Scotton
Thanks to:
Jan Mot Gallery (Brussels), Nova Contemporary Gallery (Bangkok)
and Prisca Violati, Edouard Hascoet, Camille de Bayser, Cécile Renoult, Nicolas Audureau, Grainger Gustafson, Julia Sökeland.
Photo credits: Diane Arques
