For his exhibition at the Miyu Gallery, Florent Morin proposes to explore The Song of the Pearl, a poem extracted from the Acts of Thomas, an apocryphal biblical text. The poem narrates the story of a prince who is tasked by his parents to retrieve a pearl guarded by a dragon in a distant land. During his exile, the prince forgets his quest and becomes a wandering beggar without purpose. It is only through a letter sent in the form of an eagle that he regains his memory and is able to fulfill his quest.
The question of the preservation of memory haunts the artist through his practice, he endeavors to restore the fragile image of the past by delving into the nebulous realm of memory.
The practice of assembling archival images through a play of contrasts, ruptures, and associations reveals a common space, a shared background among the images. A secret narrative unfolds, filled with unspoken words, exposing the fragmentary nature of our knowledge of the past.
Similar to the Shroud, an image conceals its origin, yet it is also through its imprint that memory survives. By imprinting archival images, drawing becomes an act of remembrance, as expressed by Walter Benjamin: "It lights the fuse of what lies dormant in what has been".
This distancing through drawing allows Florent Morin to forge new connections, to examine current events echoing the remnants of antiquity, exploring the depths of time as if creating the echo of a familiar memory. The act of drawing, as it conceals the original image and transforms it into an imprint, allows us to delve into the essence of the archive, capturing what endures within it and breathing life into a whisper.
