Eric Vernhes
On the line of flight

You can build a whole life on a wonder or intuition you had as a child. There are memories that we must constantly «dig» and decline, because at the heart of these initial fascinations are intuitions about a reality that is beyond us. Our role, for our entire life, then becomes to give form to these intuitions to reveal, to oneself and to others, this hidden truth. Paul Virilio, who died last year and to whom this exhibition pays tribute, has thus built his philosophical thinking on the basis of a striking image of his childhood: the one of the horizon and the maritime and air attacks off Nantes during the Second World War. Paul’s recent death was the catalyst for formalizing a project on these founding images of a singular life course, on this moment of grace when a particular sensitivity is called for to develop a very fine and relevant appreciation of the reality that fills the child, truly «impressed», with an inspiration for the life to come.

«Negative Horizon», «Ligne de fuite» and «Ektachrome» are three interactive, electronic, cinematographic and sound installations. So many attempts to evoke and enter into this landscape in perspective that carries the destiny of the observer towards this idealized point, called «vanishing point», where parallels seem to meet. The term «line of flight* (ligne de fuite)» is to be understood here in the sense given to it by Deleuze and Guattari: «It is the line that promises us emancipation, deliverance and liberation. We understand that leak lines do not lead to a future but to a becoming. Unlike the fixed, pre-established destiny, there is this line, which allows us to feel the being within us, to feel rid of the yoke.»