En paix – Cain et Abel

I was just writing to you to announce that I have been invited to do a work on peace by Barbara Polla, the fabulous gallery owner, writer and essayist, as part of the 6th Forever Books and to invite you to the presentation which will take place Wednesday October 11, 2023 from 5 to 9 p.m. in collaboration with Héros-Limite editions at Analix Forever.

I was wondering how to talk about Peace? Especially when everything around us is on fire, should I show it, should I write about it? First of all, what is peace? could you define it? In a positive way?

I would have told you about this window to the right of the entrance to the gallery, a 0.58 m2 field of expression on which I am going to express the idea of peace. It would be like a thorax, a red cavity, pulsating with vital order and the disorder of thoughts. I was going to evoke for you, the inner peace utopia. I would have described to you this space, where thoughts will be written in arabesques, confused, white, forgetful of themselves. The floor of which would be laid a folded gauze, stained with a single drop of blood.

That, the red stain on the immaculate gauze, as if escaped, exogenous, become outside of itself, will summon the “Other” and the first fratricide of the first children of humanity. Cain killing Abel-the-Other/Him. That this mark we carry within us is that of Cain, which designates and protects.

I would have concluded by asking if peace wasn’t about recognizing the other in oneself? Abel’s blood, Cain’s gesture, Cain and Abel at peace within us.

In hebrew, the word peace’s root, Shalam, means to complete, to discharge, to pay a debt, to clear one’s place to meet others. It is by this consequence that Shalom means peace, it takes several people to make peace. Especially within ourselves.

And then this morning, like all of us, I was shocked by the news of a new fratricide which historically, symbolically, spiritually goes beyond its geographical location to invite itself into each of us and every one of us. What can I say from where I am? This war summons my fears, my anger, my disbelief, my denial too. It throws my constructions to the ground. It invites all the others..

So I remind speechless.

I can only invite you to come and talk about peace on Wednesday October 11th.

I wish you to be at peace and safe and to make room for the other within you.

Galerie Analix Forever
Rue du Gothard 10,
1225 Chêne-Bourg, Suisse

Forever Livres #6, 11 octobre de 17h à 21h, Nathalie Rodach