Paroi

The series of paintings on loose canvas explores the potential of the pictorial support as an autonomous architectural element. The reverse side of the painted canvas becomes the background upon which the motifs are set. The composition, without a center or clear hierarchy, emphasizes surface tensions: flat, matte areas and more fluid zones coexist in a precarious balance. Against the vibrant, almost organic backgrounds, the geometric patterns define the space of these hangings.

The palette, limited to a few muted and acid tones, reinforces the wall or partition aspect, suggesting a function of separation, or spatial division, rather than opening. Thus, the painting questions its capacity to exist as a constructive surface, autonomous from any representational function. These gestures of wallpapering walls or partitioning spaces also evoke the relationship that all construction maintains with decoration. The “principle of covering,” a reflection on textiles as the ancestor of the wall, a concept developed by Gottfried Semper, a 19th-century German architect, is also evoked here.

From the exhibition booklet