Through drawing, cutting and painting, Jean-Claude Silbermann attempts to discern the presence of the Mothers, in our lives as well as in our thoughts. The Mothers of whom Mephisto, addressing Faust, said: “I do not like to; this is high mystery. Enthroned in solitude are goddesses—No place, no space around them, time still less; I mention them with some uneasiness. They are the Mothers.”

Thus appeared: Dame Perle, Mother of enchantments and restrained pleasure, or again Dame Lucy of Hadar, Mother of times to come — and some fifteen other Dames, present at Galerie Sator from 16 October to 21 November.

"Born into a bourgeois family in 1935, having escaped persecution during the Occupation, he joined the Surrealist group before the age of 18 and participated in its events until its dissolution after André Breton’s death in 1966. As a result, he is commonly classified as a Surrealist.

But, as he writes on a corridor wall, among other maxims and observations: «The disappearance of the Surrealist group has not changed what I am. For me, as for all those who found themselves embroiled in it, to be a surrealist is to be.»

And to be, for him, is to create, which means not knowing what’s going to happen. That’s how he was when he started looking, around 1961. That’s how he is today."

(Text by Philippe Dagen, Le Monde, April 2023)