Coming Closer
This project originates from a journey I took to Japan, but its deeper intention is to explore closeness—between cultures, generations, and the inner drives that lead individuals to live elsewhere.
My son’s decision to move to Tokyo, guided not by rational planning but by an inner necessity, mirrors my own early desire to leave my country and live in France, and later in Spain. Such impulses cannot be fully explained; they are lived. Once abroad, however, one must face questions of language, distance, and belonging. Integration is never simple, and perhaps never complete.
Rather than approaching integration as assimilation, this project understands the act of leaving one country to live in another as being guided by a desire to come closer: to connect with a place and to find what creates a necessary bond. Integration is considered as togetherness—being welcomed while learning to welcome a new culture, its people, and the beauty of the country itself. It is not about becoming the other, but about forming a relationship grounded in respect, presence, and mutual recognition.
Conceived as a research-based project developed throughout 2026, Come Closer builds upon earlier works that serve as points of departure. The project Landscapes (create link). My previous landscape works are not representations of nature, but undefined and imaginary spaces—mental and emotional landscapes rather than geographical ones. These works explore distance, projection, and belonging, and will be reactivated and reinterpreted in relation to Japan as imagined, perceived, and experienced i.e. beach, sea, shells and fish (2025). A landscape which could be everywhere were the sea, fish and beach meet. This research is extended through Togetherness (create link), a series of drawings in mixed techniques. And also Talking to myself (create link) a series with no end. There are days I only reflect, and dialogue with an imaginary world. I see these paintings as poetry in color, lines and forms which appear during the process of painting.
Through paintings, drawings, objects, and installations, the project creates moments of proximity in which difference remains visible and connection becomes possible. Integration is not presented as an outcome, but as an ongoing dialogue: Self and Japan, meeting through respect, togetherness, and the shared desire to come closer.
My son’s decision to move to Tokyo, guided not by rational planning but by an inner necessity, mirrors my own early desire to leave my country and live in France, and later in Spain. Such impulses cannot be fully explained; they are lived. Once abroad, however, one must face questions of language, distance, and belonging. Integration is never simple, and perhaps never complete.
Rather than approaching integration as assimilation, this project understands the act of leaving one country to live in another as being guided by a desire to come closer: to connect with a place and to find what creates a necessary bond. Integration is considered as togetherness—being welcomed while learning to welcome a new culture, its people, and the beauty of the country itself. It is not about becoming the other, but about forming a relationship grounded in respect, presence, and mutual recognition.
Conceived as a research-based project developed throughout 2026, Come Closer builds upon earlier works that serve as points of departure. The project Landscapes (create link). My previous landscape works are not representations of nature, but undefined and imaginary spaces—mental and emotional landscapes rather than geographical ones. These works explore distance, projection, and belonging, and will be reactivated and reinterpreted in relation to Japan as imagined, perceived, and experienced i.e. beach, sea, shells and fish (2025). A landscape which could be everywhere were the sea, fish and beach meet. This research is extended through Togetherness (create link), a series of drawings in mixed techniques. And also Talking to myself (create link) a series with no end. There are days I only reflect, and dialogue with an imaginary world. I see these paintings as poetry in color, lines and forms which appear during the process of painting.
Through paintings, drawings, objects, and installations, the project creates moments of proximity in which difference remains visible and connection becomes possible. Integration is not presented as an outcome, but as an ongoing dialogue: Self and Japan, meeting through respect, togetherness, and the shared desire to come closer.
Kunstuitleen Amsterdam
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