“Among mammals, and a fortiori the great primates, we are the only ones who can look at one another, as the adage goes, in the whites of the eyes. The human sclera is unique in the depigmentation that lends it its white color and its large size. Contrast with it gives our irises a singular presence. One of the reasons for this evolution could be the importance of the movement of our eyes in nonverbal communication. Another reason could be the incomprehensible randomness of evolution. By standing out clearly inside the eye, our pupils point, support, insist or evade: they say a certain number of things without recourse to words or hands. For his second exhibition at Sans titre, entitled “Those yes in your eyes,” the artist Jessy Razafimandimby engages the question of gaze, and ways of communicating that refuse to employ the vehicle of orality (...) On the other side of the alcove that separates the two rooms of the gallery, a second room contains a muffled atmosphere in which one can almost hear the whispers of the night. Inhabited by lamp-works, this low-lit room casts the motif of the tabernacle: the modest tent that, long before the construction of cathedrals, served as a sanctuary for God. Thus dramatized, this space engages with the perception of intimacy and the idea of the vigil, a shared wait that lets the night pass, during which any form of light becomes witness to contemplation or rest. In the work of the philosopher Gaston Bachelard, a tireless surveyor of domesticity and oneirism, painting and language contain a “virtue of clarity and (of the) force of a dream.” In this second space, the idea of sleep is not limited to the simple suspension of the day or of consciousness but presents itself as a place of vision and of an experience that connects us to our inner worlds.’’ (Excerpt from the exhibition text Those yes in your eyes, Jessy Razafimandimby, Galerie Sans Titre, 2024)


This work was previously featured in the exhibitions:
(SOLO SHOW) Those yes in your eyes, Jessy Razafimandimby, Galerie Sans Titre, 12 October – 7 December 2024