Footprints | 48°51’12”N, 2°20’56”E

2024
Pigmented cement
32x32x3cm, 12.5”x12.5”x1.2” (LxWxH)
2/20 (First Edition)

Through memories of central Paris – its buildings, monuments and tree-lined boulevards, I am reconstructing them on a prescribed horizon. By showing these architectonic elements in glorious three dimensionality whilst suppressing others, the work is a personal interpretation of the city.

Between space and time, it might help generate narratives that strike a chord with individuals. However, there are negations within familiarity on this work. The cityscape, complex with multiple storylines, is only partially represented here. By exploring on the artwork, viewers may make connections with their experiences there, or reflect upon their own living environs.

In the short film Les mains négatives
(1978) by Marguerite Duras, one can barely make out Porte Saint-Denis, the Opera, or Rue de Rivoli through the windscreen. The streetscapes stood apathetic – the signboards, cars and buildings are distant. Traces of the same Paris, elicited a bygone reality there and then, can only be restored today in a fleeting state of mind. Imaginary footsteps do not yield results.

The hand etchings, recalled by Duras in the film, were cast thirty thousand years ago in Magdalenian caves along the Atlantic coast. They feel strangely remote yet familiar. The story of these imprints, narrated by the director herself, has longings to be shared.

Time has both preserved and effaced our memories of existence.