This series centred on Saint John the Baptist, cousin of Jesus and a prophetic figure in the biblical narrative, is less concerned with the religious dimension of the character than with the mythological power of his story. John the Baptist appears as a solar, ascetic, almost magnetic figure: the one who announces, the one who comes before, the one whose words seem to possess a power that extends beyond his own existence.

Opposite him stands Salome, whose dance and desire lead to the beheading of the prophet, a recurring subject in biblical painting. Between them unfolds a troubling relationship to power, fascination, and manipulation: John’s body becomes a relic, an object of desire, but also an object of possession.

In my work, this story resonates with that of Orpheus, the founding figure of Orphism, whose words and song likewise possess an almost supernatural power. Like John the Baptist, Orpheus is a threshold figure: between the living and the dead, between the human and the divine worlds, between light and darkness. Both are men whose words seem capable of acting upon the world — right up to the moment of their own disappearance.

Saint John and Orpheus converge around the same solar figure, luminous yet ambiguous: a presence that attracts, fascinates, and perhaps manipulates. Behind the prophet or the inspired poet, the singer of Orphism, another, more unsettling figure emerges — one whose power lies as much in what he reveals as in what he exerts upon others.

The series thus explores the shifting boundaries between myth, desire, fascination, and power, bringing the biblical imagination into dialogue with ancient narratives and the archetypal figures that continue to inhabit our contemporary imagination.