The Spinning Man, a portrait

Neo Valen

An acrylic on poetic canvas

“The Spinning Man” is a work representing a man on a real scale, made up of a multitude of colored filaments. This figure first took shape on city walls before being transposed onto canvas.
 
Its inspiration finds its source in my observations of forests, where I contemplated these filiform trees reaching towards the sky. Although I never succeeded in making this representation of a tree a reality, I did, however, transpose this idea to the human figure. In “The Spinning Man”, each filament is similar to a colorful tree, symbolizing a life distinct from that of its neighbor, while contributing to the unity of the whole through homeostasis.

Work

In the genesis of each of my works, and “L’Homme Qui File” is no exception, everything begins with a click, coming from a person I don’t necessarily know. It is the story of a passer-by, who, during his wanderings, comes across a deviant device by chance. This system offers him, with a simple click, the possibility of claiming his right to live until his death. A fundamental right, expressed through this simple but deeply symbolic digital act.
 
This click is the trigger that provides me with the raw material, allowing me to capture and paint the moment, the precise moment that results from it, like a photographic snapshot of present time. For me, this gesture represents much more than a simple interaction: it is the signal that an individual claims their right to live, marking an awareness that an alternative, more poetic world is possible. “The Spinning Man” is the incarnation of this person, an artistic representation of his desire to exist fully in a universe where poetry and alternatives have their place.

A man who spins for eternity until he dies

In the poetry of “The Running Man”, an ephemeral and elusive figure, who goes through life at full speed, fleeing towards the unknown, I have integrated a heart that really beats. This heart, with its own existence in the blockchain, is connected to “The Spinning Man” by radio frequency. This heart will continue to beat until a specific date, at which point, according to the execution contract, it will cease to function. The precise moment when “The Running Man” ends remains unknown, but inevitably, one day, it will stop, and “The Running Man” will do so forever.

The result

This work, beyond a simple artistic experiment, transformed into a captivating game when it came to reading it to children from diverse cultures and nationalities. The novel told the story of an employee, the sole survivor of a plane crash. Although the overall story remained the same, the variations in understanding and interpretation were fascinating to observe.
 
Although the book sometimes proved difficult to decipher for young readers, the interest lay in the demonstration of this superposition of states. Each child, depending on their cultural context and personal experiences, brought a unique interpretation to the emoticons, thus illustrating the richness and diversity of human perceptions. This experience was for me a way to explore and show how the same series of simple images could generate a multitude of stories and emotions, reflecting the complexity and beauty of human communication.