CUTS with HASHTAG ‘ # ‘ – IABLIS Jahrbuch für europäische Progresse 2005

13 years ago “IABLIS Jahrbuch für europäische Progresse “ [ Yearbook for European Progress ] invited me to create a series of 13 linoleum cuts for it’s “4. Jahrgang” [ Year issue ] 2005, ” Übersprungene Identität: Von Proto-Nationen und Post-Existenzen” [Skipped Identity: From Proto Nations and Post Existence ]. Aside from my ” Raymond Verdaguer – AvantG “ Illustrations, an interview was published as well [ translated from English ] titled [ in French] ” Je ne suis que de passage “ [ I am only passing by ]. It is hardly a past updated project, rather the unfortunate statement of the tragedy of a world we are living in now that only seems to intensify…

Although it was not an as widely used sign in social media as it is now a days, I did choose the hashtag ‘ # ‘ graphism’s as a design base. Even today, I cannot explain the true reasons for such a choice, except for the fact that it felt visually like a raw unfinished structure: it had the capability to be transformed into either stable or not, depending on a particular depicted situation. Certainly, it allowed me to ‘frame’ the human struggle, and it remained a ‘link’ factor for my engraved series.

While growing up in France, way too many references to World War 2 came to my childhood’s ears from adults’ conversations for me not to be sensitized to tragic events. Certainly those were freshers on peoples minds and perhaps historical facts were able to be documented and recorded in ways they didn’t before [ voice, photo, film ].

At the time, It was only my first ‘briefing’ on inflected pain, soon I learned that wars and atrocities were part of the humanity agenda endure since the ancient times… and it would likely be no ending to this. As if there is no vaccine to immunize us from miseries. Our present time reminds me of the situation of a volcano threatening to intensify its eruption…

Not just from the adults, rather by being bullied at school, I experience the capability for humans to inflict pain to others, but I could never figure out the reason behind it. Is this harsh factor “incripted” in us?

Linoleum cuts