Autumn Ahn & Arébénor Basséne 

Mots de neige, histoires en sable

An oversight and a reminiscence.

A trace is such that it never reveals itself entirely.

Memories from childhood, the confused dreams in the morning, the remains found underground…all carry a missing part, a constant threat of erasure. It is the rebellious past that refuses itself to the inquisitive present.

When opening an old drawer of a house, wandering off in a street cherished by childhood, leafing through an old history book from school…the past infiltrates itself instantaneously.

But memories, like words, often flee away, and others erupt without invitation. The vacillations of our minds give them the color of the day, too.

In fact, History often dissolves in a multiplicity of stories.

Personal tales, imagined scenarios and collective memory interweave with one another.

What is the purpose of poetic imagination? Some would answer “nothing.” They would perhaps be right, it serves to nothingness.

And nothingness is full.

It is within the cracks of our knowledge, that universes are raised. A little bit like those of Autumn Ahn & Arébénor Basséne. 

Curated by Jennifer Houdrouge

Selebe Yoon is pleased to present a two-person exhibition by American-Korean Artist Autumn Ahn and Senegalese artist Arébénor Basséne as a result of a 5-weeks residency in the venue. From drawings, paintings, sculptures, soundscapes and site-specific interventions, “Mots de neige, histoires en sable” (Words of snow, histories in sand) inquires on memory’s malleable and fragile nature, and the poetics of imagination in the face of an incomplete History or stories.