Profane n°12 (Printemps/Été 2021)

PAPER SKIN

For six years now, we have been committed to revealing the discreetly voluntary part of each person, to tell the stubborn dreams of a life, to show what the world weaves below the visible and orchestrated zones. The situation that we all know since our tenth issue in May 2020, and which does not end, has frozen a real under a bell as one anaesthetizes the desire. This given order of distancing from the world, of an annihilated social and collective time, of a supposedly secure domestic and private space, has certainly benefited sales of puzzles, raw clay, paint, sewing supplies, cookbooks, board games, vegetable garden seeds, among others. Personal epiphanies took place. We can rejoice in this, but is this how we imagined it? ? Is it possible to make something of oneself when the surprise and novelty of the surrounding world are kept at bay, when dereliction and withdrawal dominate ? Too early to say, and so we have chosen to continue as before, with subjects that rarely fray with this sanitary reality – except for a Peonies under Trump expedition and a book of family memories. We have also decided, against all odds, to maintain our publications during this strange year, and to thoroughly review our website, knowing that our distribution and presentation venues have been reduced to a minimum. And for our next appointments, let’s keep the skin above all, let’s add the night, the unexpected, the exchange, the other, and let’s keep the sorrow away with this new issue that we are happy to brandish! !