Par/terre

Par/terre is an installation made to be both looked at and sat on. It invites the viewer to enter the space of the painting — Garden of Delights — and become part of it. The starting point was a carpet I found, with a pattern that echoed the ones in my paintings: both floral and suggestive, with a charged, almost erotic energy. I divided the carpet into four rectangles, slightly elevated from the floor — no longer just a carpet, but something between architecture, furniture, and stage. A place to observe, and to be observed.

These four sections mirror the four rivers of Eden — as described in both the Bible and the Qur’an: water, milk, wine, and honey. Each part holds one of these elements. A square filled with milk. A small fountain spurting water into a drain. A stream of wine running through like a gutter. A pool of thick honey. They recall sacred gardens and ritual spaces, but also the aftermath of a night out — wine spilled, milk gone sour, honey sticky on the floor. You could imagine someone passed out beside the drain.

Par/terre plays with dualities: sacred and profane, ornament and function, architecture and nature, party and stillness. Like in my paintings, where interiors mimic gardens and symbolic shapes hide beneath design details, this piece turns the setting itself into an image. It’s not just a place to view the work — it’s part of the work. A soft, absurd, sensual threshold between contemplation and collapse.