A Flower Is Growing Inside Me

Nils Alix-Tabeling's practice takes many forms, including sculpture, performance and painting. Drawing on ancient myths, pagan rituals and science fiction, his work also addresses contemporary concerns such as queer issues and ecological emergencies. Blurring the boundaries between reality and fiction, the artist unfolds an imaginary world populated by monsters and marvellous creatures, as well as forgotten or marginalised historical figures. He develops a transhistorical, symbolist and hybrid universe that defies social norms and fixed representations. 

This exhibition is haunted by the figure of folk singer Judee Sill, who enjoyed a short and flamboyant career in the early 1970s. Emerging from a period of sexual liberation driven by the hippie counterculture, Judee Sill's mystical poetry resonates particularly strongly with Nils Alix-Tabeling. The sensitive energy of her songs helps us navigate difficult times, accompanying the sense of disappearance and loss towards a form of rebirth. Like a catabasis—as Greek mythology refers to the hero's initiatory descent into the underworld—the exhibition invites an introspective plunge into these realms of gentle melancholy. 

Forming the cornerstones of this journey, four sculptures offer allegorical responses to the emotions the songs inspire in the artist. The journey culminates in an installation combining video, sculpture, song and performance, like a poetic ceremony that captures the spiritual essence of Judee Sill's music.