After a first large-scale presentation at the CPIF (Centre Photographique d’Ile-de-France), the gallery Les filles du calvaire is pleased to present “Le moindre souffle” by Sandra Rocha, a project born of the fruitful encounter between still and moving images, developed by the artist in the very heart of her native Azores, and the readings that accompany her exploration: Ovid, E. Coccia or J.-C. Bailly, from which she draws her inspiration for the title of the exhibition.

 

Continuing on from her previous series, Sandra Rocha once again puts man in his natural environment and the ties of community forged between all living creatures at the heart of her new composition.

 

The comforting landscapes she calls into being – which seem to have been taken straight from the Garden of Eden – invite bodies like celestial apparitions to commune with Mother Nature, nature whose lush vegetation seems to protect these beings who are totally at one with the elements.

 

Using image sequences, she portrays symbolic micro narratives that reflect our state of mind and our suffering. How can we live with our identity, our sexuality and our femininity? How can we understand these people who look like us, but who are also strangers?

 

In the distance, we can hear the ancient song of the Metamorphoses. We can see Narcissus endeavouring to find a person who he thinks is separate, but who is in fact a part of him, or rather is him. We can see Actaeon being transformed into a stag by Diana, and Hermaphroditus losing his identity as his body merges into that of the nymph Salmacis.

 

And to this multitude of mythologies, each of which contains the many meanders of life itself, Sandra Rocha provides continuity, a hymn to the beauty of the world and its agitations, sung with the living breath of the chorus of life itself.

 

– Fannie Escoulen