Nathalie Decoster, sculpting “ways of thinking” means inviting people to think about tolerance and respect for others – sources of diversity and hence of wealth.
For Nathalie Decoster, sculpting ways of thinking means inviting people to think about tolerance and respect for others – sources of diversity and hence of wealth. It’s also an occasion to analyze off-beat mental constructs based on the notion of freedom. Finally, it’s an examination of frailty, the versatile nature of the emotions which govern our lives.

The dialectic between two opposite and yet inseparable ways of thinking in “Est-Ouest” reveals the solitude of any dogma. On the other hand, “Stéréo”, emphasizes the unity found in difference, the perfect harmony, the grace, the amplitude inherent in the recognition of others’ freedom. “Tous les chemins mènent à Rome”, a discreet lesson in living and respecting others, invites us to believe that the only possible measure of an individual life is that of happiness. The same is true of “De A à Z”, a raucous celebration of the infinite diversity of life choices, of the possibilities available to us.

“Deus ex machina” symbolizes the irruption of spirituality and religious thought, represented by a divine entity, or its modern-day avatar, the business leader, in the midst of a crowd of men seized by repetitive activism. “Sens giratoire”, on a humorous note dear to the artist, creates a feeling of uniformity, of compulsory routine, and finally, of gregarious posturing.
More optimistic, “Points de vue” evokes visions of the world and of life which are inherently incommunicable, and yet shared in a joyous cohabitation. Diverse ways of thinking exist within couples, too.

In “Tête à tête II”, we see two beings, one of whom thinks “square”, and the other “round”, one reason, the other emotion…

But “Tête à tête I”, of primitive inspiration, expresses the perfect complementarity of the inseparable – the downstroke and the upstroke, woman and man. Evoking the structure of our minds, “Brainstorming I et II” refer to independent, “off-beat” thought, which in a more or less supervised exercise in freedom and fantasy, sheds all constraints, the better to soar. Our ways of thinking may well be the most intimate things about us: our mood, our personality, our destiny, that which makes us unique.

It’s in this quest for the invisible that Nathalie Decoster’s work finds its fullest expression. “D’un jour à l’autre” features two beings, perhaps a couple, balancing on the scales of life, alternating from major to minor, experiencing inherently ephemeral success and joy.
“Faire le vide” evokes that perilous moment during which we’re hanging by a thread, cut off from the world, waiting for a rebirth. The breakaway group of free musical notes in “Si la sol” is an ode to the lightness and gaiety which unites the dancers around a way of being, despite their different frames. While “Vagabondage” invites us to waste time, or even to head for the hills, “Delirium” reminds us that eclecticism, and even a certain chaos, be it in our lives or in our thoughts, are productive.

Likewise, the drunken dreamer in “Dans la lune”, open to encounters and to chance mishaps, shown in a reflective, outdoor mode, leads us to think that the straight path is undoubtedly not the richest… “Qui s’y frotte, s’y pique ” and “Être et paraître”, more somber works, depict people isolated in their ivory towers or behind façades of appearance and conventions, wearing certainties like defensive quills, and underline how difficult it is to be oneself in human society.