Frederic Schmiliver

"The only real journey, the only bath of youth, would not be to go towards new landscapes, but to have other eyes." - Marcel Proust, In Search of Lost Time (1918)

From mid-March to mid-June 2020, we, the majority of Europeans, had an unprecedented experience in our lives, observing strict home confinement to limit the spread of covid-19 on the continent.

Suddenly, brutally, in the space of a few days, the world as we knew it collapsed before our astonished eyes.

Schools, shops, parks, public places closed and a ban was imposed on visiting the homes of others, even close family. People began to wear face masks while avoiding each other on the streets, ostensibly changing pavements.

As the external world became an increasing source of anxiety, my family homebound retreated. Building and nurturing what became an antidote to what lay outside. A wonderful reclusion, one we dreamed of or fantasised about on certain days when we were tired and overworked before the pandemic.

With no more professional constraints, our family settled itself in a vacuum. We lived a moment out of time, where joy, love, games, melancholy, nervousness and the tiredness of our repeated proximity mingled. Each allowed to take its natural course without the usual constraints of time.

From this work, I derived an intense pleasure: that of living my family life without constraints, without intrusion, without judgment. Fully.

"Le temps retrouvé" is the first part of a diptych dedicated to Covid-19.