MATHILDE LEFORT

HEAD OF A BURNED SELF

Your first identity is given to you. You are Born into a time and space. You inherit a country, a family, some passions and abilities that define the first years of your life. As you grow up, you start expanding and reshaping yourself. You start building an idea of who you are according to how you perceive yourself and how you want others to perceive you. With time, you add layer upon layer. From a son, you become a father or from a student you become a professional. You are now in this comfortable box of a self, that you built for yourself. You feel so comfortable that there is no need for questions. « That is who I am ». The secure feeling of belonging. There is nothing wrong with that.

But this is an illusion. The illusion of a self, built from the outside-in. Just an unstable shell without foundations. The illusion is more visible when challenging thoughts, feelings, and situations, come up and start to shake the core of this biased identity. The question is now open : « Who I am ? » A frightening but necessary interrogation.

The first step is to get distance, to be the observer of your own identities. Then you can begin to notice the system of consciousness attached to it and the related beliefs. Your eyes are now open. You are no longer IN it but on TOP of it. Layer after layer, you burn the illusions of this estranged self. The more you burn, the more the answer is revealed to you. The univetable and only answer : « I AM NOTHING ».

Beautiful. You are now ready to play the game. The game of reality. Because when you are nothing, you get to become everything.

You only fear what you don't know, so be willing to face your own nothingness. That is where all the answers can be found.

TOTEM OF THE ABSENCE OF TIME

Crossing the path between contemporary art and shamanism, this piece uses one of the oldest and most commonplace art materials as a totem for the absence of time. Totem of the absence of time or Totem of presence. Same. Presence of the absence or absence of presence.

As the visionary artist Joseph Beuys said:” through shamanism, I refer to the fatal character of time we live in. But at the same time, I also point out that the fatal character of the present can be overcome in the future.”

Aged and decayed, this wood adds its history to the artwork by introducing the idea of time-space. Standing in his presence, this totem carries time by collapsing it.