With the video Solutions, Absalon takes what he had put in place in Proposition d'Habitation even further and renders it more obvious – experimenting with a one-person domestic world reduced to its minimum by stripping down to the bare bones, and through the optimisation and geometricization of the space.

Solutions shows the protagonist, Absalon himself, dressed in black trousers and a white shirt in an entirely white cell, going about a series of domestic activities. The first shot shows the artist sitting on a chair in front of a white table, drinking, then eating, smoking a cigarette, and finally, fidgeting with his hands. In the second shot, Absalon lies down on a wardrobe that also serves as a bed. Next, we see him sitting on a desk, masturbating. Some of his gestures are slightly nervous and convey a kind of intense anxiety. In the following scene, he paces around the desk and rests his head against the wall. He shakes his hair to clear the table of the dandruff that has fallen onto it. The last shot shows Absalon gradually removing his clothing before lying down in a white cube that serves as a bathtub.

Absalon's minimalist units function almost like a second skin, a prosthesis and a narrow envelope that allows the body to avoid any superfluous movement. Absalon describes his spaces and renders their autobiographical character explicit: “The volume is built in such a way that, despite its relatively small size, I won't suffer from lack of space. Owing to its quality, the cell is more a mental than a physical space. Like a mirror of my inner self, it will be familiar to me. The cell is a mechanism that conditions my movements. With time and out of habit, this mechanism will become my comfort. [...] The house will be a framework for resistance against society, preventing me from becoming what I must become.”

Unlike a traditional house that aims to accomodate and welcome, Absalon's cellular spaces are designed to isolate. They form a protection against external parasites. These liminal spaces imply a strict discipline of life and doubtless evoke the religious cell with its impenetrable exterior and its serene and austere interior. The restricted freedom imposed by Absalon's spaces confront us with our inability to surpass the limits of the body, except through the transcendance of the mind.

Cristina Ricupero