Our lives are saturated with information and requests to communicate and consume. Everything is said, shown, displayed... Art does not escape these excesses of light inundating reality and demanding something recognisable and identifiable. In this context, we want works to reflect our daily issues, attitudes and everyday stories like so many different mirrors.
Do we really want this?
If we’d like to know more about ourselves, art can
reach us in our depths and mysteries, in our deeply
burrowed emotions that painfully try to break the
surface of consciousness. We need intelligible
formulations to find direction in our existences, but it is also important to get lost in shadows and darkness to understand the veritable sense of light.
For it is by night that the mind illuminates whilst wandering, by feeling increasingly free, less
imprisoned by the rational rigours of daytime. It is by
night that the unthinkable happens, revealing a face -
albeit soberly - that we did not know belonged to us
once all the masks fell off.
Patrick Bonté
General and artistic direction
Image (c) Chantal Michel