The urge to disappear can be seen also as a momentary wish, a response to an inconvenient situation or an overload of information. Fading away is, in a certain manner, the recognition of inevitable death; but at the same time, it is the desire to retreat to an inner universe altering physical reality. On the other hand, vanishing could mean as well a complete immersion with our surroundings, leading to a state of selflessness and dissolution of the ego. It is neither an entirely solistic act: disappearing in the presence of the Other is the ultimate state of altruism, devoting completely oneself to another. On the whole, our perception of any object is shaped not only by its presence but also by its absence. We fully understand the nature of something when it becomes invisible. 

What brings then a group of artists, each with their singular language, to observe the elusive part of the world? Phenomena that are too hard to grasp, to capture, to possess? While it seems that art is dealing mostly with appearance, Anne-Charlotte Finel, Clarisse Hahn, Nathanaelle Herbelin and Simon Martin are researching disappearance, fleeting moments of transition between being there and leaving. Each work presented here plays with our viewpoint, activating the tension between attachment and detachment. In their unique ways, each artist unveils the hidden layers of recognition, making us aware of what is usually overlooked or taken for granted. Vanishing Act aims to reveal the gaps, absences and uncertainties inherent in our perceptual experience, both physically and emotionally.

A poem by Rainer Maria Rilke explains this mental image in a very lucid way : 

I have many brothers in the South

who walk with me under the high palm trees, 

and they all have dark eyes

that look out into the world. 

The leaves rustle with a secret sound, 

and the nights call with a thousand voices; 

we are silent like the stars

and like the flowers, at rest.

We vanish together without a trace,

into the great silence of the blue distance,

and no one knows who we are, 

and no one asks about us.

Noam Alon