gilbert garcin retrospective at espace jacques villegle

correct account

gilbert garcin – retrospective at: espace jacques villeglé from: now – until june 20, 2009 (free entry)

espace jacques villegle, (saint gratien, france) is currently holding a retrospective of gilbert garcin’s work. the french artist creates surreal collages / sculptures from paper, sand, string, rocks, pieces of a meccano and other discarded objects which he then photographs. he almost always features a cut-out of himself in his black and white images – ‘confronting the meanings and absurdities of the human condition in stark, dream-like landscapes and situations’.

the shortest path

the witness

the couple mechanism

le maitre du monde

self searching

change the world

nothing is perfect

diogenes or lucidity

the melancholy of garcin’s poetic ‘enactments’ never overwhelms.  instead, an optimistic humour is communicated throughout his series of allegorical works, a sense of playing in a psyche littered with fragments from the past.  garcin himself has explained: ‘in seventy years one has gathered ten thousand souvenirs, one has a sort of attic in one’s head.  piled-up things, which end up suddenly re-emerging.’

the free exhibition will end on june 20th – more information can be found here.