Wilting Point

Published at the occasion of the exhibition Wilting Point, curated by Marie Lesbats, at Pavillon carré de Baudouin in Paris in January 2019.

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In botany, “wilting point” is the term used to describe the point beyond which the level of moisture in the soil is insufficient for the plant’s survival. The plant wilts, then dies if these hostile conditions endure. In our world, there are other breaking points, restless in-between places maintaining a tenuous link between life and death.

The reporter, because he shares his vision of a world in motion, pursues these precarious equilibriums. He immerses himself in the chaos and, capturing the clamor, attempts to comprehend it. Why do certain countries leave us with the feeling that they carry a heavy burden? Why do we leave them with the idea that the worm was already in the fruit, as though someone had fed it, fattening it up over the years? Now it’s here to stay. Kyrgyz revolutions, sectarian wars in the Central African Republic, the Rohingya exoduses, Kashmir, the former Soviet Union, and so on. On the face of it, these situations have nothing incommon. Many, however, present confused identities, a disequilibrium that is expressed by recurrent tensions—apparently insolvable—and that may, indirectly, have repercussions far beyond their country of origin. (...)