Asymptote(EN)

Laurent Derobert

The apparition is well-known but remains nevertheless a mystery. Mary Magdalene sees the one she loves whom she thought was lost for ever and runs towards him. His response is to say: Μή μου ἅπτου.• Noli me tangere. Do not touch me. Can there be a greater torment? Within easy reach, love remains unapproachable… Unless the Greek phrase is approached differently: ἅπτειν can be understood as to grasp, more than to touch. Mè mou aptou. Noli me tenere. Mè mou aptou. Noli me tenere. Do not hold on to me. You can touch me, body and soul, which you never ceased to do, but you cannot hold on to me. For I must go somewhere else and from that place, I will not abandon you.

In Ines Mélia and her works, there seems to be something of this apparition and mystery. Ines is here and yet already far away. Her paintings, visible windows on the invisible, are as many signs that life is elsewhere and yet very much here. Everything about her is touching, yet nothing ties her down. There is something of the indicative mood in what is uttered in the imperative mood. Whatever you say, think, do:

YOU DO NOT HOLD ON TO ME. Precisely the touchstone of the artist: an inalienable freedom here on earth. As far as mathematics are concerned, this gaze into the distance, the elusive horizon traced by her works, can be summarized in just one word: asymptote. Tending towards without clinging to anything. In the same way as infinite hope fades when what is desired is reached and grasped.