In 2015, I was invited to present my work in the rooms of the permanent collection of the Fine Arts Museum in Lille (France). Six projects were selected: Le Christ (1992-2000), Les pierres tombales (2006), La table (2003), Plaques sensibles (2009), Rubik’s Cube (2010) and Nuancier (2014). The installations in the museum rooms shown below are the ones which could be rendered by photography, all were not "photogenic". But each subject matter was unique, and the group of the six projects unveils my interest for painting, for the notion of tableau, and for the two-dimensional representation in relation to the museum space and its collection.
Rubik’s Cube, set of 6 images, inkjet prints, 100 x 100 cm x 6
À l’origine, ce cube fut inventé par un sculpteur pour ses étudiants en architecture. Il servait à appréhender et à manipuler concrètement les diverses dimensions de l’espace. Ici déplié et mis à plat, il illustre ce que toute image réalise : le passage de trois à deux dimensions.
La table, analog photography, 210 x 176 cm
An emblem of family reunions, this table surrounded by its chairs is considered here as a motif. Freed from its function, it can admit other representations, other images, which can echo each other in the free-play of association or analogy.
Les pierres tombales, 2006, series of 9 photographs, inkjet print, high 80, length variable.
For this series of headstones, the shooting reflected the shape of the object given that these smooth surfaces dictate the manner in which they would be framed. These pictures minimize the divergence between the object and its representation. These marble surfaces have been eroded in a manner which echoes the process of analogic photography; a relation is established between the nature of the object and the way in which it can be registered.
Le Christ, trytich, after Philippe de Champaigne, analog photography, 93 x 135 cm x 3
Ce projet, initié au début des années 1990 à partir du détail d’une toile de Philippe de Champaigne, aboutit une dizaine d’années plus tard. Partant de l’héritage pictural et de l’image chrétienne en regard de la photographie, il soulève une interrogation autour de la nature du visible, « voir » optique et/ou anthropologique que constitue la vision. Un dialogue s’engage entre la matérialité de la peinture qui produit sa propre lumière et celle de la photographie qui elle l’enregistre.
Plaques sensibles, 2009, série de 12 images, impressions pigmentaire, 24 x 30 cm
These boxes for photographic plates evoke the history of photography and the fantasy of a mechanical image. The lids of these reliquaries of light toy with evocations of speed, truth, perfection, sensitivity or cartographic optics in a glowing lexicon which is reflected by their jaunty graphic design.
Nuancier, 2014, inkjet print, scale 1:1, 34 x 131 cm
This second hand color chart borrowed from a neighbourhood haberdashery is reproduced at its original scale. Everyday tool which doubles as an emblem of a great pictorial tradition, this colorful palette spans the whole range of the delicate shades which can elicit pleasure for our eyes.