A place to lose oneself
Vanessa Desclaux
Excerpt from Le Jardin sans soleil, Posture Editions, p. 143
In this host of creatures brought together by the drawings, Marie Zolamian
creates a character with multiple faces, whose main trait is to pass by, to circulate,
connecting and disconnecting. She is described by Michel de Certeau
as the figure of the passer-by, the beggar, the madwoman: ‘She does not speak.
She makes others speak’.11 Certeau writes: ‘A nameless woman, who vanishes
the moment she is recognised, precedes other figures of men who bear names
(…).’12 This shape-shifting figure strongly reminds us of the political position to
which society relegates all marginalised, subordinate people, that is, those who
deviate, exceed or fall short of a constantly redefined norm. These figures haunt
the work of Marie Zolamian, which in turn haunts us.
11 Michel de Certeau, La fable mystique, I, XVI-XVIIème siècle,
Paris : Gallimard (1982), 1992, p.48
12 Ibid., pp. 48–49