Souvenir VII, 2025

Romain Liverato  

Photograph printed on art paper and drawing made with a Bic pen with a wooden frame and museum glass.

Souvenir
Inspired by Heraclitus' famous maxim, “You can never step into the same river twice," “Souvenir" questions impermanence, the fleeting nature of lived moments, and the way in which reality becomes an inner image. I wanted to initiate a poetic and visual reflection on memory, its changing nature, and the inevitable transformation of reality. I imagined this series as a dialogue between two mediums: photography and drawing. To achieve this, I invited Jude Castel, an artist and illustrator, to contribute to my works with his own visual language, using blue or red Bic pens, which he wields with remarkable precision. This collaboration has given rise to works created by four hands. Each work thus combines two registers: a photograph taken by me and a drawing added at a later stage. The two parts can be separated by a clean tear: a strong visual gesture symbolizing the break between what has been experienced and what remains. This tear is also a place of passage: it symbolizes the transition from the photographic image, still anchored in reality, to the drawn line connected to our memory.
This alteration between these two worlds can also symbolize, more generally, the transformation of the landscape, of Nature, or of any place that changes by its very nature, through the passage of time, through environmental changes, and through the subjectivity of those who perceive this reality. This process also echoes the changes in the landscape itself: its transformations under the effect of time, human impact, or climate change. In some works, the use of red reinforces this interpretation by evoking rising temperatures or visible signs of change.
“Souvenir" emphasizes impermanence. It explores what is falling apart, what is changing. By combining photography and drawing, reality and memory, I emphasize a sensitive interpretation of time, absence, and what we choose or choose not to remember.