OF OUR INTERIOR LIVES, OUR DREAMS AND OUR NIGHTMARES

How deep can we look into ourselves and give shape to the ghosts which govern us, often without our knowledge? Art never ceases to open doors in dark labyrinths of our unconsciousness and to place us facing the unknown. It is of little importance whether the artist or the viewer makes this progression: the main thing resides in the experience of the viewing and what it brings into play, for everybody who abandons themselves to it. 

But every door needs a key and the keys are dispersed over vast stretches of artistic inspiration. Art history is indeed a major source for the invention of forms and it procures in numerous artists the foundations of their own development, be it strange, complex or unforeseeable (Tony Cragg, Richard Deacon). But the ambiguity of feelings is also an inexhaustible field of investigation, whether it be a question of human relations at the very limit of reason (Eija-Liisa Ahtila), the power of childhood memories (Claude Lévêque)or sexual troubles which conflict with the dominant models (Jesper Just).

And so many other fields closed by invisible walls pique the curiosity of artists and supply them with material for their works of art: the feeling of powerlessness created by the indecent injustice that the rich weigh on the poor, whites on blacks, even in so-called democratic societies (Kara Walker, Steve McQueen); the fear of death, often abated by the constant search for entertainment or luxuries, and which is shown by projecting itself as cinematographic illusion (Izima Kaoru); the endless quest for ultimate beauty, the ultimate sensation, the ultimate writing (Maurizio Nannucci).

Art can sometimes be a revelation of the impensé of an individual.

_{(1) & (2) Aldous Huxley, Brave New World, 1932}