Walled Up, 2019.
Collage and marbles on Canson paper 200 g/m².
61 × 84 cm (24 × 33.1 in).
Contemporary drawing Art fair Drawing Now,
Carreau du Temple, Paris, 2019.
Private collection, France.
The walls that are being built along more and more borders in the world make a kind of calligraphy of the closure. The black stripes represent walls built or under construction, the blue-green stripes represent armoured maritime borders, grey stripes represent the gated cities (such as Baghdad, or near São Paulo) or prison islands for asylum seekers (such as Nauru in the Pacific Sea), and white stripes represent the Chinese wall, remnant of the longest wall ever built.
For many of the world's inhabitants, when they do not possess a passport or the required visa, crossing some borders is a challenge full of suffering and risk. The marbles lined up at the bottom of the drawing are reminiscent of pinball games. Here it is the uncertain fate of these travellers that is at stake, when a stroke of luck or misfortune may or may not allow certain people to reach their destination.
