a different person, Adam — how do we react?
work by juliette green for the gallery’s 20th anniversary
On the occasion of the gallery’s 20th anniversary, French artist Juliette Green has created a new work. “A Different Person, Adam — How Do We React?” explores the ways we respond to difference. Inspired by conversations with Christian Berst, the piece addresses mental health and other forms of singularity, confronting the viewer with kindness, hostility, or indifference, and inviting them to observe these human behaviors with nuance and distance.
This work was inspired by several conversations with Christian Berst, during which he shared stories about his journey. Throughout our discussions, the theme of how people react to difference came up repeatedly.
I wanted to draw on elements of these exchanges while also extrapolating from them. The situations depicted in the drawing may relate to mental health but also to other forms of difference.
The narrative centers on a fictional character named Adam and the reactions his presence provokes in others—kindness, hostility, indifference… a wide range of emotions come into play.
My aim was to place the audience in the position of a witness, encouraging them to take a step back and reflect on these phenomena that we can observe around us.
It was important to me that the characters’ responses remain as nuanced and complex as those we encounter in everyday life.