Motvind

Headwind

2019

Newspaper Edited Work, 30 000 pieces, 30 x 40 cm

 

« In the countryside, we have our feet on the ground ». That’s what I was told. And often. When I was a child and especially when I was expressing my dreams of greatness. It was necessary to not hope too much. Life was not going to be nice at me, life was going to be very difficult, just like it had been for my ancestors of the deep Bourgogne. By that they wanted to protect me, to prevent me from suffering. Sadly also prevent me from realizing my dreams. Because it’s scary. The higher you climb, the more violent the fall will be. It was better not to talk about my hope and better to forget about it. But it was without counting on my great determination that brought me to Paris at the age of 19 to study art, against all odds.

The work MOTVIND, which you have here in your hands, draws its foundations from this problematic, « dream big », and aims to allow everyone to question their own relationship to dreams.

I say that you hold the work in your hands because it is the case: every print of this image in the newspaper is an original. This picture does not exist and will not exist elsewhere. This original print is included in a set called MOTVIND that consists of 14,800 exemplars scattered to the winds, at the whim of Värmlands Folkblad readers. The image you have here is autonomous but is also related to all others prints of MOTVIND. Then, if you hold multiple copies you can glue them together to build a larger image, and this to infinity.

This link that exists between these images, even if not directly visible, is a metaphor for evoking the connection we all have with each other, despite the distances and isolation of rural life. Because this link is essential. Indeed, living in the country is not easy, we are far from the idyllic image of a peaceful and simple life. It takes courage to live in the country, to face the loneliness and difficulties of a daily « wind-contrary » life. But one thing is certain, in the countryside we know solidarity. And above all freedom.

These invisible links are largely present in nature. Just pay attention and see for example how plant species communicate and reproduce.

So, like the wind that carries and disperses pollen in the spring, MOTVIND is conceived as a seed of great dream that can germinate in the pistil of the heads of the readers of this newspaper all over the countriside.

Address

De Geersgatan 32
68260 Lesjöfors
Sweden

Follow