Pierre Sernet

While Identity is often defined as “what distinguishes a person from others of the same kind”, I have always held the view that such a definition is restrictive. It presupposes different “kinds” of people which, by definition, leads to comparisons, like: better, worse, Black, White, richer, poorer, religious, atheist, etc. Where there are comparisons, there is often competition, fear, envy, and many further negative consequences mankind regularly endures.

In my mind, there are not different “kinds” of people but rather one humankind. That we may look different, have different ways of life, beliefs, or value systems is of course true and can be perceived as aspects of our Identity. But in fact, I believe we are all very much alike and that is what my different series of works are intended to show.

Through them, I try to express how people around the world deal, in very similar ways, with the great themes and issues of life such as death, love, nationality, sex. Or how alike all faces are.

In my “One” series (often called the “Guerrilla Tea series”), I want to demonstrate how a culture can accept individuals totally foreign to their own world.

茶乾湯 (chanoyu), or “the way of tea”, is a traditional Japanese tea ceremony, one virtually unknown outside of Japan. So when I install a stylized Japanese tearoom within a cube — be it in the Thar desert with camel herders, in the Favelas of Rio, in Pachinko parlours in Sakai, inside a Zulu Kraal, on a gay beach in Mykonos, or on Fifth Avenue at the Rockefeller Center — the contrast of cultures and value systems is made apparent.

When inviting people I have never seen before to share tea, I use the tea concept of 一期一会 (ichi-go ichi-e), which translates as “one encounter, one time”. With this philosophy, I aim to show that despite our seemingly incompatible values or lifestyles, a moment of time shared through a simple bowl of tea can allow diverse peoples and cultures to cohabit in harmony.


Words & Photography
Pierre Sernet