Today we’d like to introduce you to Sophie Dupont.
Hi Sophie, please kick things off for us with an introduction to yourself and your story.
When I was 14 years old, I got paralyzed. I lived in a zone of danger since my parents got divorced when I was 8, and my stepfather stepped into my life. Both my parents were psychologists, and so was my stepfather Every night, he would beat my mother, we had to flee the home, and sometimes it was only my mother, who would leave, leaving me behind, not knowing if she ever would return. I lived on a constant scenario between wishing to die and hoping that we would move away from him, but we never did. In the end, my body stopped, and later, my mother was suffering from breast cancer and died when she was only 44 years old. Being paralyzed in the body is a very long result of being paralyzed in the emotions, the mind, in the breathing. Since that time, all my focus has been to return to my life – to get my life back, so to speak, and that’s why I started, and I still do what I do -working around the very core of life. I started to study dance both as a release of all the stress and tension I had stored inside – it became my catharsis -a way to enter my body again. Later, I began to paint in abstract ways my sensations and feelings onto people in magazines –a way to release my inner pain. Today, all my work as an artist is about breathing, resting, how to carry one’s own self, how to balance oneself, how to be a human being together in respectful ways with others, and what kind of imprints we leave on each other. I don’t take life for granted, and I constantly place awareness of what makes us alive and what makes us want to live and keep connecting into ourselves and into one another in balanced, respectful ways.
Would you say it’s been a smooth road, and if not, what are some of the biggest challenges you’ve faced along the way?
The life of an artist, I think, is never smooth as well as the work and the search for truth out of formalities. The constant opening to new landscapes inside and welcoming all of it without letting the mind limit oneself out of fear and anxiety when one follows one’s own road. I think for me, I have been my own biggest struggle – finding ways to allow myself to keep searching, keep coming back to life despite the very painful realizations.
Thanks – so, what else should our readers know about your work and what you’re currently focused on?
Breathing as an act of rebellion and resistance in violent times.
Where and how is it possible to breathe in a time of war, of crises and growing imbalances. Talking about good and bad days and about good and bad climate is over. The climate and the days are bad, that is the todays reality. A sadness and a trauma spreads and grows. My practice is a rebellion against a hysterical production society, and an insistence on being, where action is non-action. A being that allows feelings to be given expression – a breath. I take my breath back as an act of resistance. My practice is a search for connections and resonance, to open up new ways and spaces for care. Breathing is a condition of life; and a constant dialogue between life and death. With the breath as a starting point, where the inhalations connect inwards and the exhalations connect to the outside world in a flow of interconnectedness. I want to reduce the distance between art and life. I am investigating what is it that makes us alive? The breath is a personal power, political resistance and a spiritual practice. Breath is spirit. My activist practice is based on respect for all living, a horizontal view of life, an openness into unknown worlds. I want to cultivate non-judgmental behavior and create care for others and establish new connections. I try to create a space in art for healing and catharsis. My works are about care and address the vital connections between people that are beyond speech – the pure presence of breath, the pause, care, resonance and respect. My artistic work explores an activist breath.
Can you talk to us a bit about the role of luck?
When you begin to be aligned with yourself, your inner truth, your goals, an inner and outer attraction happens to connect to the ‘right’ people and the places that is right for you to go and to be. The work begins from yourself, then wait, and see if luck appears.
Contact Info:
- Website: sophiedupont.com
- Instagram: sophie__dupont
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/sophiekirstine
- Linkedin: Sophie Dupont
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCE8cQUvqGFDuDxZm7zEHShw
Image Credits
Maria Ramirez-Adams
Aimée Suárez Netzahualcóyotl
Jeppe Michael Jensen
Mazja Hillestrøm
Therese Maria Gram
Shahar Doron
Kunsthal Charlottenborg
Jonathan Damslund
Thomas Bagge
