The Burrow. 2004

A burrow, excavated, brought to light. A burrow whose interior and secret workings are revealed. Complete nudity. Not just the body, everything. Life, memory, desires, loves, treasures, fetishes… all the little secrets. Franz Kafka exploited this anguish in his short story of 1923, a few months before his death. In it, he develops the decentering and terrible discomfort caused by exposure. Burrows refer to all those who have buried themselves, hidden themselves, out of shame, fear or despair, to all those who have needed to bury their lives or their memories, to all those who want to hide, to those who are cold, or afraid…. But with the burrows we’re digging up, the main idea, the idea at the heart of this gesture, is exposure. To expose. Towing your little and big secrets, towing your victories as well as your failures to the center of attention! Exposing yourself: A narcissistic rite? Without a doubt. Uprooting, expropriating, exposing, distancing? An artist’s gesture? Illumination: relocation as a mode of locomotion? A deflowering?

Extract from the interview “The Burrow”, with Juliette Laffont (2013).