Illustration
Tourisme de soi-même, 2022Map of France, produced for the Michelin [Carte Blanche à l'évasion] competition.
My choice to represent France is based on the tourism it represents. But I don't want to emphasize the places that are already so popular, to avoid going for mass tourism. I want to illustrate the more hidden places, where nature and peace reign over mankind, but which seem to me to be conducive to solitary tourism, the kind of tourism where you get to know yourself again, as mentioned earlier.
A spiritual journey, almost into an alternative world, when you're in your own bubble, in your own world, in the clouds. Like Alice, we plunge into our dreamlike journey, a dreamlike world enriched by our unconsciousness. On my map, we see our monsters, creatures and friends, all imaginary. They are deviants from reality, without being clichés.
The places are those of a child's tale, as a tree becomes a protector, or groves of fairy houses, or clearings of enchanted places. Without going into the abundance of fantasy, we revisit a light and free world, without hierarchy, judgment or abuse (of authority, ego, etc.).
It's a journey, not an epic; it's about encounters, not obstacles. You don't fight against yourself in this world of your child's bubble: you reconnect, welcome and observe.
Through the map of France, we discover a dreamlike representation of places where we find ourselves [face to face with ourselves]. Where timelessness disappears from the mind, and the mind with it. The ego disappears to make way for [Being]☼.
☼Being is a term Eckhart Tolle uses to define something in us that is close to innate.