image

An image as I am in the mountains right now, very isolated from the life I have in Paris.

And 2 words perhaps: silence and care. 

Having shared 10 minutes of silence with you felt like being here in the mountains in the pyrenee area in South of France and hearing barely the sound of the sheep’s bells. 

I had been distracted by my son while we were looking at each other, he woke up and my partner needed to soothe him back to sleep. That as well is part of my experience of this past month:  silence and care. 

My thoughts are not organized, I apologize about it. I am taking time to listen and not to think.

Sarah Fdili Alaoui

Of course the moment I joined the room, I had a reflexive reaction of saying hi, but immediately realized the intent of the project. At first I felt a bit uneasy in that it seemed a bit voyeuristic, and that I was projecting my gaze onto you. I thought that perhaps this was required in that you were doing the same. But the longer we stared at each other, the more I felt an objectifying effect taking place. I realized by doing this I was seeing less, and unable to read you or connect with you. So, I closed my eyes, to see if I could better understand and connect with your presence on screen. It’s been a very long time since I’ve meditated, and the process was profoundly enlightening. The longer I meditated with my eyes closed, the clearer my mind became. All those thoughts or assumptions buzzing inside my head receded. I began to reconnect to my chakras, and the sense of the gravity that bound my body below me, and the connection I had with the space above me and finally the virtual space we were sharing. I did open my eyes several times, and focused onto the wall in front of me, outside our virtual space but always aware of it, which in turn  gave me a sense of the space I occupied in my apartment and space outside on the streets.When I opened my eyes for the last times, you had disconnected which was somewhat disconcerting. I had expected you to just leave the space and the camera would still be on. Overall the experience was quite existential.

John Naccarato