The Captives

ku­ra­tiert von Lo­re­na Mo­re­no Vera

The Captives – Julien Devaux

What an ab­surd and relent­less at­tempt that of men to try to tame na­tu­re and time, for this re­la­ti­on and its ef­fects are ra­ther re­cipro­cal. We pur­su­it to find a sen­si­ble ar­ran­ge­ment to this pe­ri­od cal­led life try­ing to fa­thom what sur­rounds us

“We rest. — A dream has power to poison sleep;
We rise. — One wandering thought pollutes the day;
We feel, conceive or reason, laugh or weep;
Embrace fond woe, or cast our cares away:

It is the same! For, be it joy or sorrow,
The path of its departure still is free:
Man’s yesterday may ne’er be like his morrow;
Nought may endure but Mutability.” (1)

The Cap­ti­ves is the re­sult of a se­ries of con­ver­sa­ti­ons re­flec­ting on one’s allu­re towards self-sought cap­ti­vi­ty around a si­tua­ti­on, per­son or sta­te, ent­i­ced by a cer­tain de­gree of se­duc­tion and un­cer­tain­ty ac­ting at an equal le­vel. This re­la­ti­on and its un­fol­ding events trans­la­te into fu­ti­le at­tempts to es­cape, dri­ven by a de­si­re to pos­sess.

Lo­re­na Mo­re­no Vera

(1) Mutability (1816) by Percy Bysshe Shelley quoted in Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley`s Frankenstein or The Modern Prometheus (1818).