No Firing

« He sat on the sofa, wanted to talk, but the sofa was too comfortable. » The sofa as a symptom of abandonment. Of letting go, often related to a posture of depoliticization. But abandonment, sometimes, is survival. To give up in order to have peace. To make up for the mistakes afterwards. Perhaps birth grants should in fact be dedicated solely to the purchase of sofas. Exhausted, they lie down and observe, inert. They wait. Once they are rested, they can start all over again. From their common experience of parenthood, Caroline Schattling Villeval and Paul Paillet explore exhaustion, model the irreconcilability of the parent-child sleep cycles and put into space an eventual calm that never happens. The home is here reduced to the bedroom. The light is subdued and evokes a circumscribed space. The night-light neutralizes everything. The mattress is miniaturized and symbolizes a double space of re-production and non-production. The space of the exhibition is thought according to the potential interactions of a child who should not have anything within reach. No firing, it is the refusal to not work. A tribute to Lilie, to Bruce Springsteen, and to all those nights, lying down, sleepless.