Martine Bellen

2x2 Martine Bellen

Fiction. Nora comes across a newspaper article about her lost twin that sets in motion her search for her doppelganger and thrusts her from the safe island life that she has created and into a sweeping surrealist escapade, buried in the depths of an undifferentiated dream of ocean. Drifting through the foggy myths of her past, she practices spycraft and lessons of Do-gen Zenji and follows her guardian angel stepmother's advice that when traveling to lands unknown, always bring bread, milk, and ham (gifts for spontaneous bribes). Veils of betrayal and isolation are lifted as Nora navigates systems of story (fairytale and science); belief and faith (spiritual and mythological); and reality (phenomenological and truth). As in many travel odysseys, the fictions of space, time, and being are placed under a microscope and an ever-unraveling solitary journey loosens onto an always uncanny, sometime hilarious, interdependent adventure.