TENTATIONS & PALPITATIONS
Eglise Saint François, Lausanne
25.08 - 15.10 2023
Exhibition in the Church by Christian Gonzenbach et Gilles Furtwängler
TENTATION(S)
We have turned temptation into a matter of
and seduction; of trifles and pleasures of the flesh
of the flesh, which is to say a temptation
that smacks of moralism and guilt-tripping.
Temptation in the Bible is not a matter of
a matter of an accident along the way, of a lapse in conduct,
but the term refers to a universal anthropological reality
universal anthropological reality: that which
that characterises human beings when they become aware of
of their own incompleteness.
Unless they are above ground, human beings cannot live
- without sometimes experiencing
that there is something unfinished within them.
They regularly come up against it, and it's not surprising
that he tries to escape from what he sees as a
what he sees as a culpable flaw, a
lack to be made up for.
Temptation is a chronic human condition
who never ceases to struggle with this inadequacy
which hurts and humiliates them.
Temptation in humans can be seen in their
incessant, laborious attempts - conscious
or not - to escape from their impasses, as well as their
shadows. Georges Haldas wrote: "The worst
temptation is to despair of oneself. Precisely
because there is reason to do so"; to which we must add
another temptation, that of keeping up appearances
the temptation to keep up appearances, to put on
and create an illusion.
In these many strategies for escaping temptation
temptation, people have often thought of churches
churches as sanctuaries where they would be
momentarily sheltered. But the opposite is
the opposite is true. Churches, because they
resonate with a Word that speaks of the whole human being
in its entirety, while taking the drama out of it.
where he cannot escape his inescapable limit.
limit; not because they are judged, but because they
hears the echo of a blessing from afar
which joyfully repeats to him that he is welcomed and
and accepted as he is, invited to stand without shame.
without shame.
The good news of temptation when it leads us
leads us to this radical otherness that makes us
and delivers us from this obsessive quest for perfection
of perfection and artifice.
The two artists invited by
the two artists invited by the association
l'Hospitalité artistique to take up the theme of
temptation(s) at Saint-François.
Visitors crossing the threshold of the Franciscan nave
Franciscan nave will look up to see these powerful
written on Gilles Furtwängler's sharp tarpaulins.
Gilles Furtwängler. Will they recognise an affinity
with those words that never cease to pass through him and
and take hold of him, offering him the security and satisfaction
satisfaction of a flawless identity at last:
power, money, possessions?
On the floor, the same visitor will wonder at the
baroque statues placed there by Christian
Gonzenbach, statues dedicated to gods
unknown or, alas, all too familiar gods. They seem
inert, but make no mistake, they activate a retinal memory
a retinal memory that is accompanied by a nagging question
question: "Haven't I already met them once, these
these anonymous gods once before? To convince
visitors will go round them to see what
to see what they're hiding, touch them and ask themselves
touch them and ask themselves "what do these statues
offered up for our devotion?
Jean-François Ramelet, Pasteur de l’esprit sainf
![Portrait of the artist by Laurent Delaloye [French]](/en/assets/image-cache/images_entete/tdg_vignette.182402ac.jpg)
