Exhibitions

Bruno Dufourmantelle’s work is traversed by a corporeal relation with painting and the implications he has in the formulation of an absolute plasticity; this is as true of the paintings explicitly titled « Battles » as it is for the more recent works in which the image appears out of a physical confrontation with the organic aspects of pictorial materials and techniques : « I depart from black backgrounds in order to show light » , black background, light, colours, forms...

This dynamism proves the real quality of this work, whose forms (the content, the subject) do not preexist, but emerge from the void in the surface effects : « Look for beings in painting through painting ». Juxtaposed, isolated, intermingled forms that are difficult to make out (rock-like bodies, horizon-line bodies, landscape bodies) emerge from a « material of light », worked with the impressions of brushstrokes and blades (a series entitled Paysages humains, human landscapes). More-detailed hands form landmarks, while the bodies juxtapose their solitudes and their secrets-neither united nor separated.

Bruno Dufourmantelle occupies this place in which the distinction between realism and abstraction dissolves or becomes blurred, the form and the figure meld in the exploration of pictorial practice. His paintings therefore represents a memory and it refers to the emotional turbulence that a gesture can produce. The artist makes references to what we can’t say, in its capacity to create an analogy with the invisible and the unintelligible: « Paintings are interior places. I am, above all, seeking the interiority of beings and the invisible ». He thus demonstrates, here in a musical mode, that painting is a valid substitute for the depth of emotion or expression.

Living Lines

The works of Pola Carmen and Pilar Angeloglou are guided by the line.

It runs and traces its way on the coated canvases of Pola Carmen and draws the outline of the architectures of Pilar Angeloglou. In both cases, imperfect and moving, the line vibrates and agitates: it is alive.

Pola Carmen's paintings are first of all a work on the background. This background is coated, like a facade, with a very matte and deep material, left raw on the edges.

Then comes the line. An almost infinite line, whose trace is lost. These paths, Pola Carmen comes to draw them with the fatty pastel or the stick of oil. This long path constitutes like a floating frame in which openings are created which, like breaths, give rhythm to the visitor's look.

Like a game, Pilar Angeloglou builds spaces. Imaginary planes intertwine to circumvent and catch the light. Sometimes, a curve or a round opening comes to surprise and offer a new perspective. The sculpture constitutes a real space, dynamic and favourable to the wandering of the glance.

Amélie du Chalard