Return from Charleroi
"The Alba is not just a place of residence, in the technical sense of the term. It's a space that is an artistic creation, and that picks us up as such. I arrived at the Alba as an author, in the rather free framework of a project with the Brussels Book Fair. And that was my very first residency, in fact. It was like a baptism of fire, an experience that gave me the right, for the first time, to have a completely artistic time. And I owe it to Alba to have given me a framework of profound benevolence, like a parenthesis, to let my creative axis breathe a little. To give it some space, gently.
It's a strange thing to be able to give a place a personality. But the Alba has this strength. It's big enough to be forgotten if you want to. It's warm and lived-in, so you never feel alone. But you can still find solitude there if you want. In one room or another. A family kitchen. A soft or solemn living room.
My stays at the Alba allowed me to take the time to infuse things. To welcome ideas and projects as gently as I had been welcomed here. That's why it has become "home" for me, like another home. A place where I can find the energy, the atmosphere that speaks to my intuitions, that shelters without suffocating. A place of total confidence, in an otherwise destabilising, overwhelming city.
These stays at the Alba have had a profound effect on my work. Both as a writer, by teaching me to listen to certain things in me that were creative and that I didn't always know how to hear. To free this creativity, too: I had come to write, and in the end I only made photos. And these photos were exhibited as part of the Outre Mondes festival, which was held at Eden at the end of October.
Thus nourished, I finished a novel, which is being published for the year 2023. This is no mean feat, because, really, for me, the march of the second novel was very difficult to get through internally. And I know how much my Carolo visits have helped. The last one was an opportunity to take more pictures, which will no doubt be exhibited this time at the Book Fair next March." Dimitri Rochon Borie
Ces séjours à l’Alba ont profondément marqué mon travail. A la fois comme auteur, en m’apprenant à écouter certaines choses en moi qui relevaient de la créativité, et que je ne savais pas entendre toujours. A libérer cette créativité, aussi : j’étais venu pour écrire, et finalement je n’ai fait que des photos. Et ces photos ont été exposées, dans le cadre du festival Outre Mondes, qui s’est tenu à l’Eden fin octobre.
Ainsi nourri, j’ai terminé un roman, qui est en cours d’édition pour l’année 2023. Ce n’est pas rien, car, vraiment pour moi, la marche du second roman a été très difficile à passer intérieurement. Et je sais combien mes séjours Carolo ont aidé. Le dernier a été l’occasion de prendre d’autres images, qui seront sans doute exposées cette fois lors de la Foire du livre en mars prochain." Dimitri Rochon Borie
