Is this title a nominal proposition, which one imagines could constitute a kind of description of what is, if not any exhibition, at least this one, specifically? A place capable of being open to the breath of the winds, yet welcoming to those who come to visit it, an exploded but engaging house, gracious and hospitable? Or should we read this title as a paradoxical injunction, an almost brutal, pocket philosophical precept, urging us to free ourselves from what encloses us? Wouldn’t it be more simply a gentle, vibrant invitation to be whispered or sung over and over again, a mini-poem of just four feet, which manages to create a musicality through the subtle play of repetition, and slight variation, which phonetically brings together the syllables [mœʁ]” and [myʁ]?
If the title of this exhibition by Vidya Gastaldon can teach us anything about her work, it’s that here, as elsewhere, there’s no need to choose between different interpretations, that they’re all valid at the same time, and that the serpentine forms of the question mark are always better than that little black hole that is the dot. Demeure sans murs is thus an invitation, an injunction and a description, a simple and beautiful title, perfectly open, from which it becomes possible to unfold and understand some of the laws that govern this highly visual and spiritually rich work.
Excerpt from the tex by Jill Gasparina