Discover the works of Iranian artist Mohammad Ariyaei (paintings on canvas or paper), Italian artist Barbara d'Antuono (textile paintings) and French artist Isabelle Floch (drawings and collages on dibond laminated paper) who have specially created on the theme of "The tenderness of water".
"It's the story of the Mother language
The story of the letters that rise from the memory of women
It's the story of water, that of the first gestures of life and of survivors
It's a collection of gestures attached to the memory of times
When a hand came to clean your child's tears and wash your body of the noise of the world
The water whispered forbidden things to your thighs and
They were the most beautiful things of love embroidered on your bare legs;
They were dangerous things too
that spoke of the fire of men and the tenderness of water.
She said:
Come against me
I love you
Give me your hand so I can pick your fingers
With my mouth
Your body belongs to you
No one should decide for you
Be careful
Be careful
You're a girl
I'm not afraid to die, the worst
It's for my children
You want ankles thin? Wear heels!
But how is your hair done today?
You, do you remember your first time?
He loved me once
And the water continued to flow between you all,
Carrying the mother tongues,
Loving or terrible,
Carrying with it the origin of the world
And all its cardinal points
You who come from this source, you do not yet have the right to speak
You are from this dark door where men disappear
Your mother lifts you up to give you her breast
And they are masses of white, black and firm breasts
Which stretch towards your mouth eager for the words to come
You drink this thousand-year-old milk which intoxicates you
You are plunged into the heart of this feast
And it makes you dizzy
Suddenly, from your mother emerge all the mother voices
You go back up to them
And from them emerge all the female words
Which grow in you and soon keep you standing,
Words which soon will exceed,
Who remember all
And carry you above the waters.
These are flower letters that tell of the fields
Where you pick wild herbs
These are the big A's of the pursuit of Love
*And the C's of confidences between girls
Do you hear their laughter?
And later will come the R's dug in the face
Of aging women
And the words will cross the worlds in a low voice
It will be your turn to tell
The story of the mother languages that carry you
In the whirlwind of life to death".
"The tenderness of water", Dominique Memmi, September 2024
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