Exhibition : The Poetics of Space

Salt, Matter, Space

La Poétique de l'Espace - Exhibition in Caen

I have been participating in an exhibition since late October until February 25, 2024 at the Museum of Fine Arts in Caen, presenting two original drawings among other works from the museum's contemporary art reserves.

These drawings have different characteristics from my usual work, both in their graphic aspect and the method employed to create them. The technique used incorporates fundamental principles of printmaking, without being a printing technique. I conceive them as monotypes, where the matrix becomes the artwork. My working technique, based on scraping black layers on transparent supports, is also employed.

On these transparent supports, I apply a layer of gouache onto which I sprinkle salt. The salt forms clusters randomly, absorbing the moisture from the watercolor. Subsequently, after an appropriate drying time, I apply a second layer of paint, acrylic this time, over the gouache layer. The paint adheres particularly to the areas of gouache not erased by the salt. After a longer drying time than the first, I moisten the surface of the artwork, causing the gouache to dissolve and part of the acrylic layer to disappear. The artwork emerges through this process, much like printmaking ; I discover its form at the moment of moistening. Depending on the traces of acrylic and the amount of water used, I achieve varied textures and material effects that can be complex, evocating reminiscent of minerals or tree bark.

It is this variety of textures that interested the exhibition curator. The Caen Museum regularly presents displays of artworks from its reserves. The thematic focus of this exhibition was inspired by the major work of Gaston Bachelard, "La Poétique de l'espace" (1957).

In his texts dedicated to poetic imagination, this philosopher of science and poetry studied how our reveries of materials and natural elements (fire, water, air, and earth) form the basis of our ways of inhabiting the world. In resonance with his thoughts, the museum offers a selection of works from its contemporary art collection. Through abstract yet evocative canvases, sometimes resembling aerial, aquatic, or mineral landscapes, its new display invites a journey into our imaginations.

The different sections of the exhibition revolve around three books by Bachelard, each proposing reflections on the elements: the marine and river landscapes of "L'Eau et les rêves" (1941), the clouds and the desire for elevation of "L'Air et les Songes" (1943), the ambivalent nature of rock and plants of "La Terre et les rêveries de la volonté" (1946). The author's quotes are an invitation to engage in dialogue with his thoughts.

By encouraging movement in a dreamlike stroll, the museum has created a space to cultivate what Bachelard calls our "joie d'habiter."

I would like to express my gratitude to the museum and Milena Glicenstein for the invitation to this exhibition. I am currently continuing to develop this particular technique, exploring new visual directions that are more organic, moving away from my architectural and geometric imagination.

The other artists present in the exhibition are:

Hans Hartung, Anna-Eva Bergmann, Joan Mitchell, James Brown, Maria Helena Vieira Da Silva, Maurice Maillard, Geneviève Asse, Olivier Debré, Claire Pichaud, Isabelle Champion Métadier, Daniele Genadry, Frederique Lucien, Gérard Traquandi, José María Sicilia, Dominique de Beir.

I have incorporated here the text written by Milena Glicenstein to introduce the exhibition. Photo Credits: Musée des Beaux-Arts de Caen - Cécile Schuhmann.

The exhibition and the museum : mba.caen.fr/exposition/poetique-de-lespace

My Website : www.pierrebarrauddelagerie.com

Untitled, gouache and acrylic on acetate, 70x100cm, 2022

Detail 1

Detail 2

Second Stage: Drying After Moistening

Last step : Using water to clear

Sometimes the house of the future is better built, lighter and larger than all the houses of the past, so that the image of the dream house is opposed to that of the childhood home…. Maybe it is a good thing for us to keep a few dreams of a house that we shall live in later, always later, so much later, in fact, that we shall not have time to achieve it. For a house that was final, one that stood in symmetrical relation to the house we were born in, would lead to thoughts—serious, sad thoughts—and not to dreams. It is better to live in a state of impermanence than in one of finality.

Gaston Bachelard, The Poetics of Space