project description
where-we-r, 2003
This image shows the artist lying prostrate in front of the Reformer’s Monument in Geneva. Built in 1909 to commemorate Geneva’s role in the Protestant Reformation, the wall features the four great figures of the movement: Guillaume Farel, one of the first to preach the Reformation in Geneva; Jean Calvin, the "pope" of the reformers; Théodore de Bèze, first rector of the Academy and John Knox, founder of Presbyterianism in Scotland.
Located at the crossroads of important communication roads linking the Mediterranean Sea to the North of Europe, Geneva was an important place of exchanges, ideas and trade.
The artist’s ritualistic prostration, most reminiscent of Muslim worship, seems to be at odds with Presbyterian reserve. But is it, and should it be? The body’s form can only allude to what lies in the heart. The image evokes an individual experience of praise and humility that defies stylistic categories, and indicates a devotion that is more than skin deep.
