Myth along the branches
Solo Show ArtDüsseldorf 2026, Reiners Contemporary
Section Fragile Realities, Curated by Pola Van den Havel
Ulysses, from Homer’s Odyssey, is not simply a traveler, but a figure shaped by change and by the impossibility of a pure return. Transformed by each island, his body becomes a site of accumulation — a metaphor for an identity in constant reconfiguration. This project approaches identity as something porous, always in relation to its surroundings. Ulysses becomes a framework through which to reflect on ourselves: shaped by what we encounter and what we leave behind. It asks: who am I while in motion, while lost, while becoming? Rather than returning to Ithaca, the work considers what remains after the journey has rewritten us. It echoes the myth of Ulysses and the Lotus-Eaters, evoking a state between memory and oblivion. Floral motifs suggest the seductive surface of forgetting, while the constructed nature of the images holds together what resists disappearing.
The paintings function as cartographies of memory and transformation. Built from fragments, they assemble hybrid forms where different temporal and cultural layers coexist. The elements do not fully merge, but remain linked through fragile, shifting lines that trace unstable relations. Across the works, a poetics of assemblage emerges: a way of thinking about how identities are formed through relation, and how they continue to transform through displacement.
