Le poule est calme. Et le canard? From the "French Lessons" series.

I did the French Lessons project while staying at the Cité internationale des Arts in the fall of 2019.

From the first days in Paris, I started learning French using a well-known mobile smartphone app. I felt isolated without knowing the language, and I wanted to at least start communicating in French a little bit, at least understand the signs on the street and buy bread.

But the expressions I was asked to learn turned out to be completely inapplicable in everyday life. Most of them sounded funny or absurd, stated controversial things, or asked difficult rhetorical questions. Taken out of context, these phrases created a poetic field around them that inspired me to continue working with them. Approximately the same effect occurs when, while walking, immersed in your thoughts, you stumble upon someone's remark on the wall and take it personally.

In addition, I walked around the city a lot and mentally collected fragments of the urban environment of Paris. I combined the words from the app with abstract graphics that resemble urban surfaces. This is how a series of graphics and embroidery "French Lessons" appeared, where an unsuccessful attempt to learn a new language turned into a poetic statement. At the end of the residency, I made a two-day installation in my studio.

Text: Asya Marakulina