Once you step in

You’ve already stepped out

Once You Step In, You've Already Stepped Out

The first step is often invisible. We are often afraid of making the wrong choice. Yet I wonder whether the first step is really about choosing a direction. Perhaps it begins simply when we allow ourselves to listen to what already lives within us. Whether that listening is guided by confidence or by fear, it brings us closer to ourselves. From that moment on, we are no longer standing still. Once we enter into this inner dialogue, the first step beyond immobility has already been taken.

I am less interested in movement than in what precedes it. In that moment when a thought comes into being before it is understood, when a decision is born before it becomes visible, when change is already unfolding even though, on the surface, nothing appears to have moved. The two paintings that make up this work explore that inner space: the moment in which we have already left one state behind simply by choosing to step into it.

Do you think wenn du schweigst, c'est la même chose que silence?

Speech is not always an act of connection. Sometimes it arises from the need to have the last word, to justify our existence, or simply to avoid being perceived as ignorant. But what happens when two people choose not to speak?

Created as part of Act Performance 2021, this performance places two individuals face to face in silence. Gradually, silence becomes a source of tension. Without a single word being spoken, a bodily language begins to emerge. Glances, gestures, movements, and reactions become a conversation of their own. A pressure develops: the urge to initiate an action, to break the silence, or to respond to the other's movements while simultaneously trying to preserve one's own position.

Through this work, I propose a distinction between silence and abstention. Here, silence appears as an active decision: a conscious choice to remain present, to listen, and to embrace the space created by the absence of words. Abstention, on the other hand, may arise as a reaction to fear, discomfort, or the need for self-protection. While one embodies a deliberate presence, the other can become a form of withdrawal. This performance invites us to reconsider silence; not as the absence of communication, but as another way of being in relationship with one another.