I grew up under a stormy sky, and gentle rain traced my footsteps. In such imaginary landscapes, I would lose the thread of my existence. One evening, a feverish moment turned into a flood, my self, swept away by the winds of others, had vanished.
Our lives are disconnected, fragmented, lacking any sense of purpose but that conceded to our fears. The surrounding space thus becomes silenced within us; the other is condemned to the blind alley of their own aloofness. In the end, I meet my fate, the fate of having none, none other than daring to face the truth of a country with no road.
By dint of walking elsewhere, solitude becomes a privilege, audacity a promise. Freed from expectations, the encounter does finally happen. At present, everyone can identify with it, and we can, too. Photographic imprints, waves isolated amid the infinite expanse of the oceans, flamboyant animals guided by their salutary ferocity, humans individuated and yet so alike.
The Totality has never suffered in its parts: they are tied to its mystery as much as to its clairvoyance. A magnitude beyond any tremor, a force beyond any power. So many inseparable, and yet singular, elements; so much Life that wants for nothing and yet in which everything is indispensable. This is the throbbing of the original paradox of birth and death.
And here we are, inspired by breath.
Walking on the water front, at the end of the world, from island to island, like across ellipses, towards that sentence yet to be written. A whiff of elsewhere, and of salt, of tears of cold, of pity, of joy, and I am all swept away.
Elsewhere. Let’s each one of us come together.
Jean-François Spricigo
Jean-François Spricigo, Les îles
Du 2 juin au 29 juillet 2017
Galerie Camera Obscura
268, boulevard Raspail 75014 Paris
France
