Pierre Aghaikian — À propos — Slash Paris

“Nothing is more fantastic and madder than real life, and that the poet confines himself to collecting a confused reflection, as in a badly frosted mirror.”

Ernst Theodor Amadeus Hoffmann, Night Tales (1816)

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Pierre Aghaikian immerses us in a wobbly and tenebrous universe: hybrid beings, truncated bodies stand out in apocalyptic settings worthy of great Hollywood fictions. Dantesque, the world he represents is on the verge of implosion. Throning and wearing an imperial crown, the artist represents himself in “Selfportrait” (2014) as a demiurge monarch, reigning over beings with an indefinite identity (monstrous creatures, characters with sketched or narrow faces). Pierre Aghaikian’s works, nourished by references to cinema, music and fashion, arouse desire and fear as well as reinforce the spontaneity and urgency of the gesture.