Views from the plain

Stemming from the artist’s desire to capture and grasp different perspectives, this approach testifies to the plural and paradoxical nature of human vision. Within this site-specific intervention, each drawing, each image, leads us towards a unique inner world, shaped by individual experiences and subjective interpretations. By observing these reproductions, we are confronted with the fundamental question of representation: to what extent can we truly grasp the intrinsic universe of a person, an object or a place?

Reconfiguring the circulation within the GNO, a cubicle installed at the entrance blocks access to the exhibition hall. Visitors are invited to go to the mezzanine to contemplate the artworks. Two telescopes set up on the upper floor reveal their complexity: on the wall, a series of drawings and on the floor, a plan drawn in red chalk.

Metsos presents us with two distinct archival documents, metaphorically windows into inaccessible inner worlds. The first, a portrait of the artist’s father drawn by their mother, depicts an intimate and personal vision of a loved one. As a child, the artist practiced observational drawing with their mother. Following a session, she showed them a portrait she had made of her husband. Metsos was amazed at the sight of this drawing; it was for her the representation of pure love. This image marked the artist, until the day when, upon seeing this drawing again, their initial feelings were shaken. What had become of the affection she held for him? The series of portraits is punctuated by alternating drawings of apples, creating a composition that evokes the fleeting nature of memory.

The second, taken from Codex Sangallensis 1092, details the architectural plan of an ideal monastery, a dreamed representation that never materialized in the material world. This plan, conceived as a self-sufficient village, was primarily intended to allow the monks who inhabited it to dedicate themselves to God without having to leave the Abbey. Acting as a concept, it nonetheless invites us to reflect on human aspirations and how we envision and construct our physical and symbolic environments.

This juxtaposition highlights the gap between the individual and the surrounding world, between personal vision and collective reality. By reproducing these drawings, Metsos invites us to reflect on the nature of perception and the impossibility of truly sharing the feelings of others. By showing the unbridgeable gap between oneself and others, she reminds us that even in proximity, we remain partially distant from the inner world of others.

In parallelizing these two visions – one intimate and personal, the other abstract and universal,  “Views from the Plain” resonates like a palace of memory, where reminiscences of the past blend with our present reality. In this space of reflection and contemplation, we are called to recognize the fragility of our memories, the fluidity of our perception, and the eternal duality between the individual and the surrounding world. Each person carries within them a multitude of perspectives and desires. It is in the confrontation of these different realities that the richness of our understanding of society lies.

Philippe Bourdeau, March 2024