Meditate with Evé Jospin (born in 1975)

Funny monuments than cenotaphs. These funeral constructions evoke the radiant glory of a deceased famous, but whose body is however absent. For what ? Perhaps because it has disappeared at sea, that it was crushed by the violence of a conflict or, more simply, because it was carried away by the flow of centuries or fragile memories. But the need to honor is renewed. As if the distant echo of a past glory no longer needed the original cry of a man’s life.

Here, the mineral cenotaph raised by the French artist Evé Jospin presents his pretentious lot of columns, domes and parapets. It looks like guessing a final lighthouse that hopes to keep a light, however very extinct. But life has not said its last word. Lianas and branches, branches and stems of a primary forest patiently invade the spaces of the monument. Engulfed as are the temples of Angkor or the Mayan pyramids of the Amazon. The effect is striking, attracting our gaze taken by the call of realism and the pleasure of the imagination.

Because this vegetable clutter, teeming and lush, is patiently directed by the artist in layers of carefully glued and cut boxes. She likes to offer “mental escapes”, over the imaginary forests that she produced. Playing with our fear of getting lost. And the incredible joy to find us. Like one of these children’s games necessary to learn to grow. A lesson in salutary humility.