Absence as a starting point.
Project Dyonisos finds its roots in the myth created around silences and a few key sentences sprinkled in my family’s story : « he was Greek », « he’s probably buried in Montreal », « he was studying cardiology », « he died very young ». Thus, when this project started, the only verified fact connecting my grand-father and I, was a date : my father’s birthday.
An inherited story which elude fathers. Erases them, lets them sink into oblivion little by little. A decision to get a hold of this history and to reframe it, so its missing characters get their places back. A spot they never really lost. It starts by following the footsteps of my father’s father.
The re-drawing of this narrative started with the collection of evidences and testimonies given by family members who knew him. Afterwards, in Montreal, I found his last accommodation, his workplace, the place of his deadly accident, and finally his grave.
Over the course of the investigation, the tracks started delineating the ghost of Denis : Dyonisos, of his Greek name. Literally «the twice-born». Correspondingly, this story is re-invented by the actions performed to retrace it. It becomes closer to a fiction, by the simple act of its reactivation. It turns into a tale, which offers and modifies itself depending the people who interact with it and receive it, allowing them to relate it to their own origins. Life events outgrowing themselves.
In the end, my project speaks of a contemporary family. The common story of an uprooting, alluding to the loss of a bond, to displacement and to reconstruction. Something Anne Ancelin-Schützenberger describes as « present / past » and which continues to influence descendants over several generations, without being clearly noticed.
This investigation and the elements collected over its course led me to develop a series of sculptures and installations echoing with my photographic works.
