It is probably the dark realms of our life that first turn us into humans – without the black of the night the light of the day would be meaningless. One of the traditions of our human culture is that we see bright spots in the darkness – just as, in our view, shadows belong to sunshine. We do this in order to see a meaning in the whole, and not just in its parts. This frame is fixed, the space is clearly delineated. The only thing we can draw is the movement with which we travel between the two sides.
There are moments and places that remind us more than others that we can determine only this one gesture. Marseille is one of them. The city lies on the border between land and sea, south and north, France and the Mediterranean, Europe and the rest of the world. Here, the zest for life rubs constantly against sadness. This friction brings about an intense melancholia that does not reconcile one with the other, but instead transforms itself into a sort of balance.
First Publication: 16-7-2013
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