« When this title ‘A lion in my room’ appeared to us in January 2020 for the annual theme of the UFO festival, no one had predicted the catastrophe that Covid would cause. These words are taken from Allen Ginsberg’s poem ‘The lion for real’. In this poem, the narrator comes home and finds a lion in his living room. He tries to escape from it, but fails. He recounts his misadventure, but no one believes him.

This story then seemed to sum up our times. Scientists, whistleblowers, artists were already reaching out to us to point out our lions. Yet, often, we persist in living as if they did not exist. Since then, these words have gripped us with new acuteness. The reality of the pandemic imposed itself on us, overnight, as an additional warning signal.

The OVNi 2021 edition reflects our lions, our personal and collective challenges, our struggles and questions. The era does not allow us to lose interest in it, one could say, to paraphrase Camus. The artist is ’embarked in the galley of his time’ and, in fact, we with him. »

Bérangere Armand