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photo of Camille Laura Villet

Camille Laura Villet

Paris

Here we discover the journey of Camille Laura Villet, philosopher, psychoanalyst and lecturer.

Studies, readings, projects... Here's what she has to say!



Can you introduce yourself? What do you currently do?

I am an anthropological psychoanalyst, a member of an association, the APA, which enabled me to make the link between my philosophy studies and a psychoanalytical practice.

Art also occupies an important place in my life. In 2011, at the invitation of the Centre Pompidou, I accompanied a group of young people on a tour of the museum's permanent collection. Our tour, scheduled for twelve sessions, lasted two years. It even led to the making of a 26-minute film "Embarcation Beaubourg". This museum dive allowed me to renew my experience of abstraction. I had never taught. The Centre Pompidou asked me to design tours for 18-25 year olds. I suggested we let ourselves be guided by the works of art. What were they telling us? What secrets about them, about us, about life, were they telling us?

Works of art take us back to the mysterious source within us from which everything comes. So it was an extremely enriching, sensitive experience, and one that we shared collectively. We were touching on something that transcended our subjectivities and put us in a position of very particular correspondences.


I knew then that I never wanted to stop exploring, in all its forms, the link that unites image and word. And I founded KhĂ´ra imagination to bring together those who are interested in this question, share our research, our creations... and open up a path for us to grow.

We need to create contexts conducive to the unveiling of sensitivity as well as the weaving together of intelligences. Contemporary reality is aggressive, violent. Individuals express themselves in a hyper narcissistic and paranoid mode, which is often exacerbated by social networks. However, there is a gentleness and a power in the "I" when it is combined with the Other. Art works to open our hearts, to develop a plastic thought, if I may say so, and not a learned one.

What memories do you have of your studies? Of your teachers?

University was a magnificent place of openness for me. I think I benefited from a reality that is now almost extinct. I worked with no goal other than to explore, welcome and shape myself to the greatness of thought. I began with an MA in English on Shakespeare's King Lear. Then came the encounter with pictorial abstraction. Philosophy immediately became necessary. I went straight into a degree at La Sorbonne. I didn't understand a thing, but as it was vital, I persevered. Meanwhile, I was also taking drama classes. It was the vagaries of life that led me to psychoanalysis. I took the bait there too.

There were no teachers, just encounters, guides who, for varying lengths of time, lit my path. It takes a lot of patience and willpower to become your own light. I hope to achieve this one day.

Which philosophy book have you been particularly passionate about? The author you fell in love with at first sight?

Being and Time by Heidegger... It took me a few years before this book was passed on to me in Emmanuel Martineau's translation - which, at the time, was not online - and I began to hear something in it.

Heidegger was my first teacher. He moved me to tears and made me fall in love with philosophy. He led me to everything I had wanted to know, without being aware of it. He responded to vague intuitions. I began to be reborn through him. Heidegger, and finally his translators, gave me words to express myself, organise my inner chaos and overcome my anxieties. Before this encounter and the concomitant encounter with abstract painting, I was wandering in a world to which I didn't feel I belonged. I felt very guilty about this, like the ugly duckling in the fairy tale. Heidegger handed me a mirror in which I recognised myself. In a way, I was no longer alone. And that gave me courage.

Now I'm very happy that I didn't stop there! I mean, not to have got stuck there. Heidegger, what I understood of it, is in me. I carry it with me like the memory of a beautiful love story. He is an integral part of my construction. I like to have a coffee with him from time to time, but no more than that.

Have you ever tried your hand at writing? Could you tell us about your creations?

I have rewritten my thesis which was published in 2011 by Editions de l'Harmattan under the title Voir un tableau : entendre le monde. I am currently preparing a new essay on the meaning of art and culture based on a rereading of the 20thth century that I am starting from the trial that the sculptor Constantin Brancusi brought in the United States in 1927. I have not yet embarked on the search for a publisher. I'd like to call this essay The Journey of Dionysus. We'll see... But it's very close to my heart. Entrusting it to you also allows me to tell you of my ever-growing interest in mythology. It is the negative of psychology... its flip side and an inexhaustible source of understanding of human beings.

I have other projects in the pipeline involving artists whose sensibilities I particularly appreciate. To be continued...

Thank you for offering me this interview.



Thank you Camille, for this testimonial!

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