Ody Saban, A Tract To Follow

Ody confides a lot to whoever listens attentively to her, and the more she confides, the thicker the mystery is. Indeed, she reveals such a profusion of ideas and feelings, of experiences and desires, that the modest computer inside the brain of the person to whom she is speaking finds it difficult to synthesise it. And can we really speak of a synthesises? This woman is too abrupt and subtle, too pacifist and of a fighting spirit, too gentle and violent, in short too complex, to be defined precisely. The fights she takes up in the name of her convictions, the strength of her demands, are only equalled by her capacity for generosity and love.

With “ art Cloche”, in Paris, from the very first days she fought with enthusiasm, led by the faith of creation. For her, life is important, as important as the proliferating work. Ody still sees her surrealist friends, shares their hopes and likes their conflicting ideas. Whoever fights, refuses, denounces, claims his individuality, his originality, his presence, attracts Ody Saban. She does not cheat, she commits herself completely, choosing lack of comfort and even destitution to remain free. Thus she exhibits a lot, shows her works, in Paris and elsewhere but without giving up her fighting attitude. She prefers to be in need, if it is the need of passion, than to try to convince the ones who look for tame artists.

Ody Saban gives us a change of scenery, takes us to disconcerting interlaces, whose fragility is affected, of a line which runs its course, kept up by a wish to exist and a hope for truth. In the apparent jumble of the black ink marks, some strong pictures take form. The colour comes to harmonize and civilize. Through an erotism which dares to tell its name, here is the woman whose faces are multiple. Ody offers them all us.

Gérard SENDREY