L’PADO means “stuck” in the West African Moba language. During the COVID-19 pandemic, I became deeply aware of how the virus existed as a constant presence in social media, the news, and everyday conversations. It was not only a health crisis but also a psychological and emotional atmosphere that surrounded us. While fully acknowledging the devastating loss of life and the lasting physical and mental consequences experienced by so many, I also felt an overwhelming sense of oppression. It was as if human existence itself had become restricted, suspended, and confined within invisible walls.

This feeling of being stuck profoundly shaped both my emotional and physical reality. My body felt limited, my movements reduced, my breath heavier. I searched for an exit—an opening, a possibility—while witnessing close friends struggle under this condition of L’PADO. Some turned to drugs in an attempt to escape the pressure. Others harmed themselves as a way to cope with fear, uncertainty, and isolation. Seeing people I care about caught in this state of confinement deeply affected me and intensified my need to respond through artistic creation.

Through this work, I embody the sensation of stuckness and transform it into movement. I explore tension, resistance, collapse, and release. The body becomes a site of struggle but also of transformation. I search for possible doorways toward freedom, even when those doors seem invisible or fragile. Beyond the idea of liberation, I question the delicate balance required to remain free. What does it mean to sustain freedom once it is found? How easily can it be lost?

Ultimately, this project asks whether movement itself can become a conscious practice of liberation—an embodied resistance to limitation, a reclaiming of space, breath, and human presence.