Ich Höre, die Axt hat geblüht - Paul Celan « Axe on » est le portrait qui nous apprend à voir l’image de Dieu en toute chose… comme la terre nous est étroite…c’est un morceau du ciel… supporté par le monstre tapis… - Adel Abdessemed Axe On, The title of Adel Abdessemed's installation echoes the title of Paul Celan's poem I Hear the Axe Has Flowered (Snow Part/Schneepart, 1971). Like the poem, the installation deals with similar twofold opposites, so typical of our time yet true throughout human history, between aesthetic subtlety and the violent reality. The installation is comprised of 154 knives welded together to create 15 bouquets. Each bouquet holds between 7-15 knives of different sizes, turned in on themselves to create a field of fleurs du mal. Adel Abdessemed's installation does not hint at one event or place in particular; it happens nowhere and everywhere, it happens now and every time. It uses the language of art in order to touch – an honest, straightforward touch of that violent impulse. If one thinks of Japanese Zen gardens as a peak of aesthetic subtlety, a place of reflection and calm, Axe On, the field of knives returns us from that peak to the ground, to reality.