Reflection by Dora Garcia and Us on 100 Impossible Pieces of Art
Sometimes, something or someone makes your heart leap!
Art is meant to do this to you—whether gently, subtly, or with force and excitement. It’s designed to spark emotions and energise your heart—or, as I call it, your emotional centre.
I’ve always believed that art is best experienced with the heart rather than just the brain.
The brain may analyse and calculate what it sees, but the heart feels it more intuitively and emotionally.
That said, the work of the artist Dora García changed my perspective. Her art invites both the heart and brain to work together, creating a unique experience that makes you think as much as you feel.
Dora García’s art does not consist of just traditional paintings or sculptures. Instead, she crafts her pieces using written words, stories, quotes, and other creative methods. Her work creates “scripted situations”—natural, abstract, surreal, philosophical ideas or scenarios within real-life contexts.
These situations can surprise, disrupt, or even take control of the moment, drawing you into something entirely unexpected, pleasant or shocking!
For example, in November 2024, while visiting my birthplace, Strasbourg, I encountered one of her most thought-provoking works, 100 Œuvres d’Art Impossibles (100 Impossible Pieces of Art), at the Musée d’Art Moderne et Contemporain.
This piece wasn’t a painting on a wall—it was a list. On a gallery wall, García had written 100 ideas for artworks that could never be realised.
These “impossible pieces” could never exist in the real world, yet reading about them made you imagine what they might look or feel like in reality.
At a glimpse, the simplicity of the list struck me, but its meaning became much more profound. It made me think about the impossible things in lifegoals, experiences, or ideas we can only dream of but never achieve.
It was a powerful reminder of how art can inspire us to reflect on our lives and limitations in surprising, entertaining, and sometimes even shocking ways.
What I loved most was how García’s work played with both emotion and intellect.
First, the words on the wall caught my attention and made me feel something—joy, curiosity, shock (sometimes horror) and even wonder.
Then, as I considered their meaning more, I felt challenged to interpret the ideas, like solving a puzzle. This combination of feeling and thinking is what makes this piece so unique.
I wanted to share this with you because her work is a powerful way to meditate and reflect on our lives and the things we may miss. It reminds us that even impossible ideas have value—they give us a glimpse into something we can only imagine.
And isn’t that what art does best?
How to meditate with this piece?
Treat each sentence and idea as the subject of a meditation or a reflection on memory or something that you always thought about– here is how I am practising with this piece of art:
- I speed-read the piece first to understand its concept.
- I stopped and focused on the sentences that surprised me and made me react the most.
- Some became the centre of my reflection, allowing my emotions and feelings to flow without self-judgement. It might take a few seconds to…
- I set aside the sentences that made me feel uncomfortable.
- Later, I revisited those sentences, and if they still made me feel uncomfortable, I set them aside again.
- Don’t dwell too much on the ‘why’ and ‘how’ of the sentences—embrace the idea and concept and let them sink into your heart. Then, wait for its response.
- Feel ready to do this meditation. You will receive an emotional response that might cause you to leave your comfort zone. Take your time.
- Sometimes, you will feel playful, melancholy, tears, pleasure, and a smile on your lips, so enjoy!
The Piece
100 Œuvres d’Art Impossibles – 100 Impossible Pieces of Art by Doria Garcia
*Please note I kept the text below in French based on the original piece. I translated this text myself from French into English. Therefore, the translation may not reflect the exact English words or sentences the artist might have chosen. However, I did my best to convey the meaning of each sentence and the essence of every word.
Also, the artist deliberately left two sentences out of that list, and I don’t know why; I might need to contact her and ask one day!
I leave you to guess which ones!
1 – vivre la vie de quelqu’un d’autre.
Live someone else’s life.
2 – faire les rêves de quelqu’un d’autre
Dream someone else’s dreams.
3 – ne pas mourir
Not die.
4 – être, au moins l’espace d’une seconde, auprès de tous les êtres
humains sans exception
Be, at least for a second, with all human beings without exception.
5 – noter tous leurs noms
Note down all their names.
6 – être dans plusieurs lieux à la fois
Be in several places at once.
7 – choisir ses rêves à l’avance
Choose your dreams in advance.
8 – raconter toutes les histoires du monde
Tell all the stories in the world.
9 – diriger entièrement une autre personne
Fully control another person.
10 – ressusciter au moins partiellement
Partially resurrect.
11 – mourir plusieurs fois
Die several times
12 – vivre plusieurs vies
Live several lives.
13 – connaître tous les points de fuite, avec leurs points de départ et d’arrivée
Know all vanishing points, with their starting and ending points.
14 – occuper physiquement l’espace de quelqu’un d’autre
Physically occupying someone else’s space.
15 – partager des hallucinations
Share with others our hallucinations.
16 – revivre son enfance
Relive your childhood
17 – exclure une couleur du champ de la perception humaine
Exclude a colour from the field of human perception.
19 – trouver son double
Find your double and live with them.
20 – voyager dans le temps
Time travel.
21 – revenir en arrière et essayer de rajeunir ainsi
Go back in time and try to grow younger.
22 – entendre uniquement les sons émis par son propre corps
Hear only the sounds emitted by your own body.
23 – être seul(e), mais vraiment seul(e) au monde
Be truly alone in the world.
24 – intervertir les sexes
Reverse the sexes.
25 – rejouer indéfiniment la même scène devant un public qui vieillit et finit par mourir
Re-enact the same scene indefinitely before an ageing audience that eventually dies.
26 – limiter le nombre des questions et des réponses
Limit the number of questions and answers.
27 – voler dans les airs ou se déplacer à grande vitesse
Fly through the air or move at great speed.
28 – savoir la vérité
Know the truth.
29 – vivre sous terre définitivement
Live underground permanently.
30 – savoir exactement combien de fois quelqu’un a pleuré
Know exactly how many times someone has cried.
31 – terminer l’œuvre inachevée de quelqu’un
Finish someone’s unfinished work.
32 – simuler toutes les émotions
Hiding all emotions.
33 – tout oublier
Forget everything.
34 – tout se rappeler
Remember everything.
35 – conférer la vie à l’inanimé
Give life to the inanimate.
36 – accélérer le temps à volonté
Speed time at will.
37 – prédire l’avenir
Predict and read the future.
38 – lire les pensées
Read thoughts.
39 – effacer certains événements passés
Erase certain past events.
40 – empêcher certains événements futurs
Prevent certain future events.
41 – multiplier la lumière du soleil
Multiply the light of the sun.
42 – faire des réserves de souffle
Store reserves of breath and respiration.
43 – être aimé(e) de tout le monde
Be loved by everyone.
45 – combler un abîme
Fill a void.
46– remplacer tous les livres par leur reflet dans la glace
Replace all books with their reflections in the mirror.
47 – assister à la fin du monde
Witness the end of the world.
48– sauter un jour
Skip a day.
49– mettre le même texte dans tous les livres
Write the same exact text in all books.
50 – changer le nom d’une grande ville
Rename a significant city.
51 – changer les noms de tous ses habitants
Rename all its inhabitants.
52 – transpirer de l’or
Sweat gold.
53 – créer des automates capables de penser
Create robots capable of thinking.
54 – tout voir
See everything.
55 – assister au commencement du monde
Witness the beginning of the world.
56 – toucher le temps
Touch time.
57 – user un corps humain par le toucher
Wear out a human body by touching it constantly.
58 – voir simultanément plusieurs événements consécutifs
Simultaneously, see several consecutive events.
59 – voir son propre visage
Look at your own face.
60 – être seul(e) à voir au royaume des aveugles
Be the only one to see in the kingdom of the blind.
61 – évoluer dans une autre dimension
Move to another dimension.
62 – arrêter de dormir
Stop sleeping.
63 – dormir sans arrêt
Sleep endlessly.
64– vivre avec un fantôme
Live with a ghost.
65 – ressentir la douleur de quelqu’un d’autre
Feel someone else’s pain.
66 – dominer totalement ses émotions
Completely control your emotions.
67 – voir l’âme humaine
See the human soul.
68 – synchroniser toutes les respirations
Synchronise all breathing.
69 – annuler une décision irréversible
Undo an irreversible decision.
70 – faire comme si la mort n’existait pas
Act as if death does not exist.
71- Etre identique a quelqu’un d’autre
Be identical to someone else.
72 – écouter toutes les conversations
Listen to all conversations.
73 – être derrière et devant la porte
Be behind and in front of the door.
74 – réprimer les battements de paupières
Suppress the blinking of your eyes.
75 – éliminer les souvenirs à volonté
Erase memories at will.
76 – ne plus bouger
Stay completely still.
77 – enrayer le vieillissement
Halt ageing.
78 – devenir transparent(e)
Become invisible.
79 – bâtir un espace infini
Build an infinite space.
80 – remplacer le jour par la nuit
Replace day with night.
81 – inverser les hiérarchies
Reverse the hierarchies.
82 – changer le sens des mots
Change the meaning of words.
83 – traverser les murs
Walk through walls.
84 – se réincarner plusieurs fois très vite
Reincarnate multiple times quickly.
85 – se rappeler les positions adoptées par le corps pendant le sommeil
Recall body positions adopted during sleep.
86 – créer des barrières invisibles mais infranchissables
Create invisible but impassable barriers.
87 – repousser les limites du corps humain
Changing the limits of the human body.
88 – moduler la fidélité des miroirs
Adjust the fidelity and reflection of mirrors.
89 – recommencer sa vie à zéro
Start your life over from zero.
90 – vivre de l’autre côté
Live on the other side.
91 – alterner à volonté entre folie et raison
Alternate freely between madness and reason.
92 – changer de sexe et d’âge à volonté
Change gender and age at will.
93 – regarder à travers les yeux de quelqu’un
See the world through someone else’s eyes.
94 – vivre sous hypnose
Live under hypnosis.
95 – composer la bande-son de la vie de quelqu’un
Compose the soundtrack of someone’s life.
96 – persuader une personne qu’elle est morte en réalité
Convince someone they are dead in reality.
97 – refaire les rêves de la veille
Redream the dreams of the previous night.
98 – faire une chute sans fin
Experience a never-ending fall.
99 – photographier chaque instant de sa vie
Photograph every instant of your life.
100 – rien
Nothing.
