Etel Adnan, Laure AdlerLa beauté de la lumière

In these interviews with Laure Adler, conducted a few months before her death in the autumn of 2021, Etel Adnan traces with depth and emotion the founding experiences of her artistic approach, between poetry and painting. From her youth in Lebanon to her late (and “tiring”) recognition at the Documenta in 2013, via her American years in New York and especially in California, the conversation quickly becomes complicit, and it is the sometimes difficult destiny of women that is revisited and questioned.
What is astonishing is the book’s lively, bubbly tone, and the absolute belief in beauty that inhabits it: the beauty of the world, the beauty of art. The conclusion is in fact a magnificent opening: “Today is spring. There is this beautiful light. Look, the flowers in the vase. The olive tree on the balcony. It’s a good day.