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Absalon: Cellules

Cellules d'habitation: 6 residential modules of 9 square metres, designed to fit in 6 major cities (Frankfurt, Tokyo ... ) and allow the artist to reside in them. These spaces are designed to meet the most basic needs of a human body.

"What is the difference between a guy in Tokyo who lives in a tiny tunnel with a tiny television and myself? I mean it's the fact that he dreams of living in a big house with a swimming pool and I have chosen to live in a little tunnel with a television in front of me. And for me choice is a wonderful thing. That's what I'm suggesting to others, choosing, not just blindly obeying, their personal and private inner logic that has been suggested to us."
Absalon (Eshel Meir)

The cellules are the main work of Israeli Artist Absalon (1964 Ashdod - 1993 Paris). He studied at the École Nationale Supérieure d'Arts Paris - Cergy.

"The great difference between a modernist and me is that a modernist thinks about the world, how to make it better, how to sort it out. Whereas I am not thinking about changing the world, like the avant-garde might have done. I am thinking about changing my life."

"The object is a constraint and, because of this constraint it exists in my life, a bit like in religions, it's like having a whole series of constraints which in fact allow us to go elsewhere, that is to say to attain something stronger, more intense. All the houses are made with the desire to impose physical constraints which will mean that this house will be very real to me, and at the same time my presence within it grows in strength, because the house is very orderly, almost anonymous, and because of this anonymous aspect that it exudes, I have a double existence, because of this orderliness."

"First, it isn't a ghetto, it's a journey that I envisage for myself in that life, because I would be moving from one house to another and my nomadic life would be a lot stronger than my life today. It would be very clearly emphasised, the fact that everything fits into a single suitcase, that with that suitcase I can move about according to my needs. Each house will evoke a different atmosphere, in which I will live, and this is the life I dream of, that I long for, it's not a bad thing, it's a good thing, a thing of joy for me."

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