La Ballerine

In an apocalyptic setting, Raphaëlle Schotsmans invites us to a metamorphosis. A ballerina evolves. Sometimes seeming to bend under the weight of an imaginary hand. Sometimes rising towards the air. The artist forces us to be demanding, nothing is revealed at first glance, You have to embrace the series in its entirety to perceive its full symbolic scope. And it is there, in that suspended moment, that we realize what is played in front of our eyes and where we can perceive that what is hidden. The ballerina summons up buried memories, childhood dreams. Both the myth of Swan Lake and the alluring figure of a music box. A character who seems to escape from a condition that keeps her in the immobility of a role, against her will. The dancer’s lightness is prevented by the rubble that litters the floor. She sheds everything that taints her purity, fighting against invisible forces. Are they outside or inside her? Does the debris on the ground precede her passage or does it follow her? This duality between destruction and serenity is revealed in the very body of the model. She struggles to leave the dread that her environment inspires, dressed only in a ballet costume. This is what‘s at stake: fragility is a lure. It can hide under a delicate aspect, an unsuspected power. It is a process towards the light. In the midst of chaos, we witness a rebirth, and the flight of a woman who’s much stronger than we think.