Bats
A guide friend told me that he had once unknowingly entered a bat cave in a virgin forest:
“I went into the cave for 10 minutes and it got narrower and narrower, so eventually I had to crawl. Slowly, I felt the stench of the ground beneath my feet. I was sweating from the unknown heat wave, and as I wondered more and more about the source of the stench and the heat wave, I looked back toward the cave ceiling. As far as the headlamp could illuminate, a myriad of glowing red eyes looked at me in the silence and warmth. Pointed mouths, beasts pressed against each other, in silence, began to move. And I was prostrate on their excrement. By looking away, I forgot my fear. Instinctively, I ran out of the cave, followed by countless bats. »
My research for "Bats"
The bombing of the Nord Stream II pipeline this year was an event that shook me to my core. I could clearly see the excitement and desire of man to create war, to bring death. I began to devour history books telling the story of the civil war in the USSR, more particularly in Ukraine in 1919, seeing these events and those of 2022 as the repetition of a cycle. The demonic side of human nature repeats itself before my eyes, far surpassing all my imagination. Selfishness, cunning, hideousness, violence, bloodlust and madness were all part of this war. Man is no longer the end of everything but the means and the price to pay. This brings me a feeling of disillusionment. This reminds me of Gustave Doré's descriptions inDeath on the White Horse, by Dürer inThe Four Horsemen, by Goya inLos Caprichosand of Babel inThe Cavalry.
In winter, when night falls and I am alone in the silence, lit by the few solitary lights, disillusionment, confusion, disorientation and fear of the future haunt me like ghosts from nightmares in the darkness ; like owls waiting for blood-sucking bats slinking through the shadows, hooting far away in the darkness, the sound of the scene as aggressive as claws sliding across glass. I saw owls frantically tearing flesh from a carcass, bats attached to animals as they licked their blood. They rejoiced and celebrated their victory in the darkness of the night, and I didn't know what to say in the face of such evil. What I am sure of is that ultimately we will all have to suffer the consequences of this evil today. The worries and uncertainties that come to me in the solitude of winter nights are ultimately woven into this series of works.