Theme II: Presences - 2007

During a visit to a friend in Addis Ababa in 2000, I felt a mix of familiarity and strangeness. While the city had elements that resonated with my Western customs, it was also entirely different from anything I had experienced before. This trip to Ethiopia—the land of the Nile’s sources and rich in historical oddities, mysteries, and traditions—made me contemplate the possibility of moving abroad to live and work in a new, unexplored land.

The experience of moving to a new location and encountering different situations and people was going to be the driving force behind my own personal (self-inflicted) diaspora. Artists living in exile often strive to create art in search of their identity. Observing their surroundings with raw honesty, they reflect deeply, feel intensely, and seek connections within their new environments. The act of being present in an unfamiliar or barely-known society compels them to explore and identify familiar elements they can relate to or wish to connect with.

“Poésie, risque, amour. Un visage se répète en bouquets.”

René Creval