Ou-Topos
Theory of relativity tells us that time and space are not absolute. Their measurements vary according to the frame of reference in which they are taken. But who has never experienced this relativity ? Who has never made a round trip, with one of the two trips seeming longer than the other ? What are time and space ? Why do we try to give them boundaries while we feel that they are infinite ?
Vertigo caused by these infinites leads me to distort time and space: I create them, I merge them and I erase them. Giving rise to time, materializing it and allowing us to touch it. Mapping the time. Creating my own countries and my own toponymy. Dematerializing space, making territories disappear, leaving somewhere else, out of time, out of place: "Ou topos" as they used to say in ancient Greek. Reaching my u-topias, the worlds I build for myself. They sometimes have known names, which usually appear the maps of these territories : San Diego, Montana... In these worlds, we meet a few migrants...
These worlds, I paint them systematically on cardboard because the thickness of cardboard allows me to introduce the time I create into a material and to give birth to a relief, as if I were carving. Each one of these works is a space from which a time I created has arisen.
San Diego, 54 x 66 cm (2018).
« San Diego » is a remote archipelago. It takes several years to cross it, as shown by the scale on this archipelago’s map. With this scale, I merge time and space in the same unit of measure. This cartography of time does not yet enable us to touch time, but it already allows us to embrace it in new bounds.
Montana, 96 x 101 cm (2016).
As « San Diego », « Montana » is a territory that I made arise. Contrary to « San Diego », « Montana » is out of time. No scale provides information about how long it takes to reach this land. It is a place on which time does not have influence. To make « San Diego » and « Montana », I took maps on which these names appear.
Ou-Topos, 96 x 101 cm (2017).
« Ou-Topos » is even more remote than « San Diego » and « Montana ». Time and space were needed to discover « San Diego » while only space allowed to find « Montana ». But when we reach « Ou-Topos », we are out of time and out of space. Out of space in its first meaning : in ancient Greek, «ou» means out while «topos» means place. To make « Ou-Topos » arise, I dematerialize space, I make a territory disappear. The only remaining mark of this territory is the index of places of this territory (at the bottom right hand corner).
Eu-Topos Sea, 95 x 55 cm (2014).
With « Eu-Topos Sea », places recover their shapes and I create my utopia : the good place («eu» means good in ancient Greek). This territory comprises two islands, which are likely to be located in an ocean. But on the map of this territory, there is neither a scale or an index. Even not a name. How to find it ?
Ou-Topos Land, 77 x 212 cm (2017).
Since I am not sure to be able to reach the first «Eu-Topos» I created in the sea, I gave birth to another one on earth. Will it be easier to reach ?
« Ou-Topos », « Eu-Topos Sea » and « Eu-Topos Land » are visual interpretations of the utopia concept coined by Thomas More in Utopia (1516).
Before the Sea, 145 x 75 cm (2017).
« Before the Sea » is a shore from which one sees the Western World, symbolized by an angular sun that looks like a barricade. Like any light source, this sun attracts and many want to reach it. But those who manage to reach it after having crossed the sea may feel confined. Has the West become a deceptive and locked utopia for many of those who wish to get there ? Will they know the same fate as Icarus ?
At Sea, 130 x 70 cm (2017).
« At sea » is not an utopia. It is a tragedy. « At sea » tries to highlight shipwrecks and our ability to evade these shipwrecks. I found the piece of wood stuck in « At sea » on a beach in Dakar (Senegal).
Ready-Made, 70 x 35 cm (2017).
I picked up this piece of wood on a beach in Nouakchott (Mauritania). I assume it is a piece of a fishing boat, because of its paintings. I present it here exactly as I found it, thus turning it into a ready-made work in the style of Marcel Duchamp. However, while Duchamp exhibited fully functioning, almost new items, my ready-made consist of waste materials. They give us the opportunity to touch time : their use afford us the concentration of a duration, as if I transformed a duration into a snapshot.
