Group Show — Jungle Fever — Galerie G-P & N Vallois — Exhibition — Slash Paris

Past: January 11 → February 16, 2019

The gallery at 33 rue de Seine is transformed into a jungle from January 11, 2019.

As in any wilderness, exotic fauna and flora fan out in an extravagant manner, invade the space and even end up on cigarette paper in the works of Samuel Trenquier. In Oliveira’s we find organic and strange reliefs. With Pilar Albarracín, large cats are tamed and become objects of desire all the while with Jacques Villeglé, this Robinson of the cities with his lacerated posters, testifies to the profusion of our urban jungle.

Among the artists of the exhibition, a true explorer : Julien Bismuth, who from 2012 to 2017 has traveled several times to the depths of the Amazon rainforest to meet and study the very particular language of the Piraha tribe. Language and image — these are the obsessions of the artist that blend invisibly in his steganograms. The inner landscapes of Lucie Picandet resemble nothing like those we can imagine : they are populated by all kinds of mysterious organisms swarming in a psychic jungle.

« Somewhere on the Abrakian lands, beyond the sky, the chaos comes after creation …» could be the generic title of the Iranian duo Peybak’s Abrakan series … and invokes in our minds a vast and dense nature. Two monumental sculptures are the guardians of this land of the gallery at number 33. Appearing a long time ago, the « thing » by Gilles Barbier eventually took root and was covered with invasive vegetation; as for the « beast » by Jean Tinguely, it can still move and is comparable to a mysterious altar.

There is always a little apprehension in approaching this type of territory; it is similar to the stories of our childhood as the one told by Winshluss in his « dark and mysterious forest ».

In the midst of this chaotic abundance, Amélie Bertrand’s Daisy Temple offers a sweet moment of contemplation.

When we will have surpassed the apprehension of the unknown, we can make room for adventure and wonder. It turns out that the jungle is first and foremost a necessity: it supplies much of the oxygen we breathe.