Since 2010 I collect lost memories in the form of old family pictures, found in Berlin flee markets dusty alleys, buried in old cardboard boxes, sold for a few cents the piece. They would become my 'Memory Holes' series.

Memory Holes

Identity and memory are the two central poles of series 'Persona'. Friendly faces are turned anonymous by the veil of uncertainty. I am interested in the power of masks to hide or show, how they allows us to disappear or become someone else, and thus act with impunity. The conceptual process and realization of these paintings are fast, aiming to truthful realism; I take indulgent pleasure in the details of the portrait, and only afterwards I lay the mask on top of it, when the paint is still fresh. I get rid of everything, only leaving eyes and lips visible.

Persona

My latest series 'Pierres de Patience' is initially inspired by Atiq Rahimi's novel 'Syngué Sabour', a Persian title meaning 'stone' (syngué) and 'patience' (sabour). A patient stone, In Persian mythology, is a magic stone that we lay in front of us and to which we confide all our sorrows, sufferings and misteries - confessing everything we could not tell anyone else. The stone listens and absorbs those secrets, until one day it explodes, liberating us from our burden, setting us free from all the sorrows.
These drawings go far beyond the idea of patient stone as a passive listener, offering paths to climb and walk through, places to hide and crawl (maybe fall), inviting us to get closer or keeping us distant.

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Clement Loisel