Villes rêvées
About the exhibition
Seen from the top of one of the hills surrounding Fez, the medina seems like a pile of cubes embedded in each other. This impression is strange. The houses are stuck together. Hence the street of one, so narrow that it only allows one person to pass. No promiscuity. They cover real little palaces, with gardens and fountains. Painting a city is a risky business. That is why I opted for “dream cities”, unrecognizable, but inhabited by mystery. The walls are straight, the roofs sometimes lean, life is interwoven there, behind the facades.
I imagined cities as a romantic, baroque and dreamlike work. The door of a mausoleum, a mosque or a cemetery is there, always at the center of the canvas. It is a blank page that leads to the path of spirituality. It is the guardian of the soul of the city.
This door is that of all freedoms. It opens onto unsuspected paths and destinies. I begin each canvas by tracing the contours of this blank page, this opening onto all possibilities.
These cities are probably Mediterranean. At least I would like them around this white and central sea.
The walls are load-bearing.
The walls are blind.
The walls are a rainbow where dreams and women are tied together.
The light opens the doors and the journey begins.
