Using an immense variety of techniques that he customizes, improves or even invents, Laurent Lafolie essentially produces objects that are vehicles for the images he wants to share with us. He constantly reminds us of the necessary materiality of an image, through carefully chosen variations ranging from the sophisticated lightness of transparent Japanese papers that flutter with the slightest ripple of air to the hardness of ceramic plates or the transparent fragility of porcelain sheets – even the mysterious wording on stretched wires recalls this materiality. For the first time, this artist who has accustomed us to elegant compositions in shades of gray and black and white offers us a series of creations in colour, as diverse and subtle as ever. In all this work, in this craft that knows all the manufacturing secrets to amaze us with images questioning the temporality and the nature of representation, everything is played between revelation and disappearance. The notion of image goes hand in hand with magic, leaving us contemplating a silent word and written messages All of which conjure up faces that suddenly look familiar, sparking a series of unanswered questions. “What is striking is the presence of absence. I feel like I work a lot with that notion. My works are present, but what is represented is more the absence.”

Christian Caujolle Curator of the Galerie Le Château d’Eau