ÉTHÉRÉE

Aline Bouvy’s artwork is a showcase of illusions. A Plexiglas partition stands behind the reflections of the city on the window. It waves, deforms and increases reality or on the contrary diminishes it.

It may seem easy to lean and to tumble to the other side of the mirror. Nevertheless we remain alien to this oneiric universe. Some gaps appear, but they are already inhabited by eels, by our desire that weaves its way into a fantasized beyond.

Inspired by the work of Francesca Woodman, Aline Bouvy designed this artwork to invite us to look into our fantasies. The eels, direct quote from the work Untitled, from Eel series (Venice, Italy), represent the so sensual temptation that lies in the inaccessible. Here, fantasy seems to be a non-place, a state that can’t last, because it satisfies us ephemerally only. Coming closer and touching these temptations means losing the excitement of the unsaid, the unfulfilled.

Once we’ve explored the Plexiglas artwork Empathy, reality resumes running and we only have a vague memory of an already achieved desire.

Indeed, pictures are displayed behind this phantasmagoric artwork. These pictures are so enigmatic when they are seen through the Plexiglas, but they are in fact simple digits inscribed under the shape of toothbrushes ; the representation of the hours of the face of an alarm clock. We are back in the harshness of everyday life. Moving to the other side of the window means satisfying one’s fantasies and tumbling into a world that does not please us anymore and that directly calls to another reality.

Aline Bouvy is a Luxembourgish artist who lives and works in Brussels. She is represented by various galleries, including Nosbaum Reding, Luxembourg and Baronian Xippas, Brussels.