Serendipity

Serendipity, 12.04.2013. Technique mixte

A strange new word entered my vocabulary a few weeks ago: serendipity.

"Serendipity: The discovery, by accident and sagacity, of things for which you were not in quest which creates an emphasis on learning about processes, substance, and purpose along the way, as initiatives for change develop. To nurture serendipity, one must pay special attention to the development of peripheral vision, the capacity to be observant and learn along the way while sustaining a clear sense of direction and purpose."
John Paul Lederach, The Moral Imagination, the Art and Soul of Building Peace

Serendipity, en cours

Serendipity, détail

"We live in a 200-year present."

We live in a 200-year present, technique mixte, 23.03.2013

Nous vivons dans un présent de 200 ans. 
Vivimos en un presente de 200 años.

Ce tableau m'a été inspiré à la fois par un voyage dans l'Alto Nangaritza, en Amazonie équatorienne, et par un passage du bel ouvrage de John Paul Lederach, "The Moral Imagination", consacré à "l'art et à l'âme de la construction de paix".

 "Are we capable of participating in a turning point that will affect the whole of the human community? Thinking about and understanding the nature of a turning point requires a capacity to locate ourselves in an expansive, not a narrow view of time. (...)
Elise Boulding suggests we calculate "the present" by subtracting the date of birth of the oldest person we have known in our lives from the projected passing-on date of the youngest person in our family. In my case, the hands that held mine date back into the nineteenth century and those I now touch will live forward into the twenty-second. This is my 200-year present. It is made up of the lives that touched me and of those I will touch. The 200-year present represents my lived history. It is in this sense of "the present" that we need to locate ourselves in order to understand the nature or the turning point."
John Paul Lederach, The Moral Imagination, The Art and Soul of Building Peace, p.22-23