Inside Zilien’s Dreamlike Worlds: A Journey to the Edge of Consciousness
Let’s dive into Zilien’s (b.1995) dreamed worlds — at once oneiric and vibrant. Born in Mauritius, he traces the invisible pathways of consciousness and invites each of us to journey into the infinity of our inner worlds. In his work, the dream extends reality like a luminous shadow, a subtle resonance embodied in his paintings and installations. Entering his universe is stepping into the antechamber of the soul, where inner landscapes and outer horizons intertwine. Zilien’s art is an experience.
Zilien
In this exclusive interview, we meet Zilien, a Mauritius-based artist whose contemporary surrealist practice invites a true examination of consciousness. From music to lived experiences, everything in Zilien’s work is memory and awareness.
Ngalula MAFWATA : What should we know about your beginnings?
Zilien : Ever since I was a child, like many children, I used to draw and lived in my own world. We could say it all began with my parents as well, who bought me lots of art supplies to encourage creativity. Growing up in the 1990s, I drew heavily from the world of animation and the visual culture of that era, which was so alive with colour. Over time, though, studies and other pursuits began to take over most of my passions. I would draw on the side whenever I had free time—until I eventually had no time at all once I started working after university.
Finally, at 22, realizing I had a certain talent and encouraged by my parents and friends—who kept telling me to do something with my gift rather than waste it—I immersed myself in art again. That’s when I really entered the world of fine arts, refining my technique, exploring sculpture, installation, and painting, experimenting. Art history cemented my interest in art; little by little, I dug into books and drew inspiration from them. Looking back, I see that the world I created in childhood still appears in my work today. I draw from that world to create my pieces.
Ngalula MAFWATA : What were your first influences?
Zilien : During the lockdown in 2021, a friend gave me a copy of Freud’s The Interpretation of Dreams. With all that free time, I started reading it and quickly became fascinated. At that point in my life, I was slowly awakening to a sharper awareness of my dreams: I was able to observe them and question that border zone where the unconscious and reality collide. I studied the book with great attention, almost as if it were a travel guide to another world.
My father, a musician, was a profound influence on me. Like certain trends in jazz that break fundamental codes, I eventually gave myself permission to do things without asking for approval. Little by little, I became interested in the surrealist dimension of dreams and how they resonate with the reality of my everyday life. I started producing, imagining fragmented forms, and entering competitions to develop and refine my style. When I had the opportunity to have my own studio, I devoted myself to it fully, determined to pursue a study of style and perfect my universe with a new precision. After integrating theory and academic rigor, I chose to make room for the unconscious and listen to what was inside me. The unknown then guided me to shape metaphorical objects and small inner worlds within my works.
li ti mem plas kot monn kit li, Mixed media on canvas, 110 x 120 cm, Zilien, 2025
Ngalula MAFWTA : On that note, what is the meaning behind these worlds, objects, and interiors?
Zilien : You have to go back to my childhood, more precisely to the inside of the house where I grew up — at the foot of the mountain, in a calm and almost ideal place. Yet at 17, I had to leave that house abruptly, without having time to grieve for it. Over time, that departure began to catch up with me, as if I were haunted by that place. Even today, I sometimes see myself inside it, perceiving its rooms, feeling present there. That’s how I decided to externalize these experiences and talk about them. Most of the spaces I depict in my works are fragments of that house, images taken from my dreams. When I paint, I become a spectator of what I create. And once the work is finished, I find myself asking how and why I painted what I painted — it’s like a revelation.
My art draws from the unconscious part of what I live. The unconscious is a central element of our lives, yet we are often not fully aware of it. Fragments of these elements emerge into our everyday lives, whether in our night dreams or our daydreams.
Ngalula MAFWATA : Is your creation guided by the unconscious, or do you already have an idea before you start?
Zilien : In reality, everything always begins with a song. Music opens my mind. I feel as if I’ve deposited memories into certain melodies, certain notes; through them I can perceive the color, the object, and sense whether the emotion is positive or negative. It helps me a lot, but it also depends on my state of mind at the time. I paint a lot at night: it’s a quiet moment, without interruptions, when I can create fully. And once I’ve started, it’s impossible for me to stop until the work is finished… to the point of having dark circles under my eyes! (laughs)
“Music opens my mind. I feel as if I’ve deposited memories into certain melodies, certain notes”
Konversasion 1, installation serie, Zilien, 2025
Ngalula MAFWATA : Is the world of dreams real ?
Zilien : In my view, there is no duality between the world of dreams and reality. When we dream, we are truly awake to the world we live in during the day. We are constantly in our heads, and what happens inside us shapes reality. Dreaming is a double life, a world we experience randomly — but doesn’t that also mean we experience reality randomly? My art aims to break this duality between the two worlds in order to reveal their unity. We are not asleep when we dream. Déjà vus are a fascinating phenomenon; I see them as a way for consciousness to manifest itself during the day. I think of them as a glitch, a notification reminding us of the presence of our own consciousness.
Ngalula MAFWATA: Among your works, one stands out for its warm brown tones, Onz Avril. Can you tell us more about it?
Zilien: I created this painting while we were in the middle of installing the exhibition Papiers Gris (grey paper) at the Imaaya Gallery in Mauritius. I used recycled gray paper, usually meant for drafts. The idea came to me to turn it into a canvas, playing with the tones of the paper and working solely with charcoal—no paint or colors, a material that almost never appears in my usual work. We were deep into setting up the exhibition when an image suddenly imposed itself on me. I sat down and thought, I have to do this now. I was so absorbed by the need to create that I almost forgot everything else. In broad daylight, completely detached from what I was supposed to be doing, I was even surprised by this impulse myself.
In this work, there is an unusual affection and depth, linked to colors I rarely use, which ultimately resonated strongly with the audience. Many visitors came to talk to me about it. I simply named the painting after the date of its creation. You could say it was the creation of the day.
Onz avril, Charcoal on tinted paper, Zilien, 2025
“When we dream, we are truly awake to the world we live in during the day. We are constantly in our heads, and what happens inside us shapes reality. ”
Ngalula MAFWATA : A recurring element in your work is the spheres present in your paintings. What meaning do you give them?
Zilien : They are an expansion of my state of mind and represent me: it’s me traveling through these spaces. Through them, I highlight a dreamlike universe, blending the perfect and imperfect aspects of the human body—without depicting it directly. It’s a way for me to step away from anatomy. I’ve thought a lot about how to convey the organic, the human, and its fluid nature without resorting to the classical representation of the body or face. This led me to explore the simple yet intriguing object that is the circle, almost like a flying disc, symbolizing a space to explore. In my more recent paintings, these spheres have taken on the form of a house.
“The unconscious is a central element of our lives, yet we are often not fully aware of it. Fragments of these elements emerge into our everyday lives, whether in our night dreams or our daydreams.”
Ngalula MAFWATA : How did you approach exhibiting your work and managing your image as an artist, or at least what people can perceive of it?
Zilien : At first, I wasn’t calm at all. I was aware that I was putting myself on display through my work, and in a way, I was apprehensive about how it would be received. I put a lot of myself into my art. It’s a kind of vulnerability I wasn’t ready to face. Of course, that’s one side of it, but the other side is the audience, and it’s natural to question how your work will be received. These thoughts only came once the creation phase was over. To be honest, I struggle with the concept of having a solo exhibition entirely devoted to me. I tell myself that the works no longer belong to me—they speak to the audience on their own. In the end, I didn’t have to explain much, which is just as well; it respects who I am. I’m happy that what I wanted to convey could be expressed and understood through images.
Ngalula MAFWATA : In the collective mind, we like assigning a role to the artist, as a commentator on society. From your perspective, have you given yourself a role or a mission?
I don’t have a particular message to convey; I put onto canvas everything I’ve experienced in my human journey. I feel that this simplicity resonates with people, because we almost all dream of the same scenes. I became convinced of this after speaking with different people who recognized themselves in my paintings and revealed, in the end, a shared experience. These exchanges help me understand why I paint what I paint. Without the public, I wouldn’t be able to do it.
This confirms that we are all, in some way, living the same things and are part of a larger whole, in the universal sense, which connects to the collective unconscious.
Ngalula MAFWATA : What is inspiring you these days?
Zilien : I still live at the foot of the mountain, surrounded by the sea and rivers. Certain places, like South Africa, have left a deep impression on me, as have the colors of Marseille, where I lived between 2021 and 2024. These landscapes and hues have influenced my work, as have the people I met there.
You can explore Zilien’s work on VLFineArt and his personal spaces. His works will be exhibited at the next edition of Art Shopping Paris at the Carrousel du Louvre, from October 16 to 19, 2025.
