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Bonjour Paris,

I’m here. Another vernissage, this time of a collective exhibition by Hybrid’s Crib titled “Entre Surface”, in which two Indonesian artists Seni7Plus proudly put forward, Raexsyaf Arrahman and Dandy Diwangkara, are part of, was done yesterday on Rue de Seine, with my artist friends and I even made it safely home through the football crowd following the big match between Paris Saint Germain, who won, and Arsenal, who was an English team.

It was an insufferably hot day and my restless art curator friend Sandy had dragged me to the banlieu to see Indonesian artist Natasha Tontey’s “Macaque Macabre” film projection at “Si loin, si proche” festival before hurrying toward my first Parisian quartier to join the joyful art-loving crowd – sorry, I really didn’t mean that as an insult! Anyway, she would surely pay for it, most likely in the form of Flash Invaders.

I’m here. Right this moment I’m here with you, Paris. I’m with you and I’m trying to ground myself, from my own vision, from an urgent pull in my guts toward a familiar unknown – something big, something profound, for which I have courageously kept my heart open. Almost bare. Unless I’ve grossly miscalculated thinking trust equals results; thinking a heartbreak means joy is imminent.

I have accumulated a lot of heartbreaks and, hence, a lot of trust. Or, perhaps, I have accumulated a lot of trust and, hence, a lot of heartbreaks. Either way, I’ve got a lot of both in mind-bogglingly equal measure and the pull in my guts feel urgent, almost, if not more, as urgent as my demand for walking quietly along the Parisian Seine in between my social interactions. Unless this is just a full moon effect or my craving for a cigarette or two.

No, I can’t have miscalculated the timing. I have gathered quite a bit of losses throughout my life and have always turned them into wins in different forms; it would be foolish to quit now, to give way to distrust.

I have been building the momentums, and not merely from my meditation pad – I don’t own a pad – or my reading corner on the boat in Chelsea – I don’t own Chelsea. No – I have constantly been putting myself out there, wholeheartedly, never resisting situations for I believe “the best way out is always through”.

Perhaps I’ve been seen as foolish, or at least careless, for all the risks I have visibly taken, for all the hard choices I have nonchalantly made, but look where it’s taken me – closer and closer: to myself I shall return.

Over time, I have been peeling the layers – the sheep’s clothing and the fears; the wolf and the wounds; the addiction to love beyond myself – bit by bit but surely, and every nerve in my body remembers the success every uncovering brings.

I have been peeling the layers, shedding the skins a lot more aggressively these days and my discernment is a lot more on point too. Changes have been happening quicker and instead of seeing it as instability I can’t help but recognise it as momentums being gained.

I say time is irrelevant in the likes of mind and I am eager to close the gaps between my readiness and what I’m ready for: a familiar unknown, like you once were. No – I am not only eager to close the gaps; I am making leaps.

Entering a familiar unknown like you once were, Paris. And now that I’m here – right here with you, I must have unlocked a thing or two about getting everything I truly want, about getting anywhere I truly want to be. I’ve understood that I can’t know what I truly want until I’ve achieved what I wanted before. I’ve learned that in order to achieve what I truly want I shall stay in motion in the state of being fulfilled while maintaining the forward vision.

Walking along your river was the landmark of the vision of you as my previous familiar unknown, and that’s why walking along your river equals the state of being fulfilled. That by embracing you, right now, I am embracing every wonder ahead of me, every wonder coming my way. That by embracing who I am, right now, I am embracing everyone I will inevitably become.

paris, le 31 mai 2026

je t’embrasse !

d.o.