Far away from the city lights
Climbing a muddy hill
I raise my eyes to get a glimpse
Of the infinite beauty of the world

My neck is stiff
Yet my head is spinning
Over this fragment of
I feel powerless and powerful

Somehow I can't stare too long
Into the endless night
Its brightness echoes
Within me
Within each and all of us
Its mystery is all we need to know

I couldn't contain
my impetuous desire
for the creative power
of the mysterious darkness
around me

Being alone in the dark is
still the safest place to me

Exhibition Views, Second Sight, CC Strombeek, Grimbergen, Belgium

2023

(1)
Peripherical Fovea, 2023
Ambient light, mirror vinyl on polycarbonate (120 X 160 x 0,5 cm), aluminium frame, mat varnish, satin varnish and ink.
Dimensions variable

A play of opacity is created with the combination of covering matt and translucent satin. Two speeds melt: the first varnish being applied softly, slowly and regularly, while the second is applied vividly. The linearity of the brush traces is contradicted by a very fast gesture of the hand imitating the daily action of clearing (or erasing) the steam on the bathroom mirror.
Fovea refers to the place on the retina of the eye where images form. Thus "Peripherical Fovea" deliberately treads the line between abstraction and reality.

(2)
In The Dark, 2023
Ambient light, mat glass (120 X 160 X 0,4 cm) and varnish.
Dimensions variable
(3)
Without telling us, 2023
Ambient light, mat glass (120 X 160 X 0,4 cm) and varnish.
Dimensions variable
(4)
Far away from the cities lights, 2023
Ambient light, mat glass (120 X 160 X 0,4 cm) and varnish.
Dimensions variable

At first glance these series of works appear silent to the point of almost blending with their background. However, while getting closer in search for a favourable angle, matte letters reveal themselves.Thus, depending on each personal experience, these poems either remain imperceptible or are encountered actively and willingly. In contrast with annihilating flows of information and images, this play with perception and attention aims to stimulate our sense of free will. It also embodies my personal relationship to poetry: I constantly oscillate between the need for its depth and emotions and the need for distance and lightness of heart. The three poems explore personal inner experiences beyond language, while referring to gestures commonly experienced at night - such as admiring starry skies.

(5)
Ce qui nous lie, 2022
UV print on glass.
24 X 18cm

This work is very special to me. While I usually base my practice on a thorough intellectual and sensitive research, it has imposed itself to me.
In the recent years, I was very shaken by the recurring symbolic exploitation of people of colour - too often depicted as figures and not as humans with all their complexity. This processes of reduction are the base of any kind of discrimination.
"Ce qui nous lie" is a photograph I impulsively took of my computer screen during a moving scene of a TV series. The outline of his face and his features might not be visible at first sight, yet this image stuck on my mind for a while before becoming an artwork : I love to see an elusive image of a black man imbued with mystery and fragility. While he looks away, the tear at the corner of his eye embodies, for me, the necessary vulnerability for any deep and meaningful human connection.

Photos : Silvia Cappellari