Self-Discovery in an old building in Paris.
Self-Discovery on “Femme Embrione” self-portrait series of black and white film, achieved in 2011 in Paris.
When I arrived in Paris I had been hosted by a friend for the first months. She lived in an apartment in downtown. However, the building where we lived, was very old: the walls were full of cracks, and the plaster was ruined by the humidity. This decadent atmosphere inspired me to take these self-portraits photos.
The sublimation and the re-experiencing in art.
At that time I was reading “Destruction of the Father Reconstruction of the father”, writings and interviews of Louise Bourgeois. This book influenced my project particularly. Firstly Bourgeois talks about sublimation in art. Secondly, the artist states the art means experiencing or re-experiencing a trauma.
In my self-portraits, the sublimation is enclosed within the cocoon and is represented as a plastic transparent cover that envelopes me.
The cocoon generally sticks at the corners of the walls of the corridors or it hides in the corners of stairs landings in the old buildings. Cocoon is there, under the ignorant gaze of everyone, with a life, inside.
I develop two different series which depict the cocoon. Firstly, I put my attention on the movement of my body in the cocoon, in an effort unfolding from the cocoon. The movement is recurring like an obsession because the action is a reiteration of an experience. This part is split in two, one in the vertical direction, and the other one is horizontal.
The Cocoon and the Embryo.
In the second self-portraits series, I show myself as an embryo in the uterus, enveloped in the plastic layer as a placenta. Here, I look at myself from inside, from an internal point of view.
The idea of these self-portraits is to create a comparison between a cocoon and an embryo. In the cocoon happens a metamorphosis of insects, such as the butterflies at the phase of a chrysalis. Likewise in the uterus develops an embryo. This transformation is invisible to our eyes, but it happens regardless.
In my fine art self-portraiture, there is a self-discovery: the embryo in the uterus is like the cocoon in the corners: his protective organic shell envelops it but sooner or later must leave it. A woman like a butterfly will emerge from its chrysalis/uterus.
The search for freedom.
Therefore, the subject, chrysalis, or embryo, really wants to be free from its oppressive covering.
The self is in search of freedom achieving by the conclusion of evolution. The crumbling building is a psychological space where this happens.
The identity hides in the shell, so the detachment from it is dramatic. Anyhow it is necessary for everyone’s self-discovery.
