Isula Anima

Isula Anima is a trace of my encounters with invisible entities captured as I wandered on the island of my ancestors, Corsica. The island is thus a secretive world that confronts me with its harsh geology.

"Isula Anima" evokes encounters with invisible entities during my explorations of the island of my ancestors, Corsica. On this island, whose geology defies man, I perceive a secret, clandestine world. Living and inanimate beings bear witness to a world invisible to the eye, but gradually they appear.

Driven by ancestral beliefs, the landscapes eventually take on anthropomorphic forms. A journey through a mischievous nature that reveals itself through its imperceptible aspects, such as a sign on the ground, a face in a rock, dancing trees sculpted by the wind, or a figure in the sky, trees sculpted by the wind, or ladybird nests like a treasure perched atop a mountain. The objects take on a posthumous meaning, and death becomes tangible in this universe.

In the spring of 2022, I spent eight weeks immersed in my family's village. Exploring the area and meeting its inhabitants raised questions about my origins.

By meeting Jacques, a 99-year-old neighbor of the family home, I learned a lot about my family and my great-grandmother, who was the last inhabitant of the family home. He took me by the hand and guided me through our shared past.

The themes addressed in this project are ruin, trace, death, and regeneration. I'm looking at how they can be used to explore history, memory, and nostalgia, and to evoke fragility, resilience, and transformation. My research has been influenced by the plant endemic to Corsica, 'immortelle', as well as by studies of traditional healers. I tried to capture the mythological force of ancient Mediterranean societies.

The 'mazzeri', traditional Corsican healers and shamans, know medicinal plants and communicate with the spirits to heal the living. They are known for their ability to predict death through prophetic dreams. I wanted to recreate an emotional and spiritual journey that echoes the forces of the spirit and the ancient tales that still inhabit Corsica today. 

Between the visible and the invisible, this intimate quest aims to reveal this hidden world in a dimension where invisible entities manifest themselves and where death becomes sensitive, linking the deep history of Corsica with an unexplored mystical reality.