Gauthier d’Ydewalle — Noosphère — Mairie du 9ème arrondissement de Paris — Exhibition — Slash Paris

Ends in 10 days: April 7 → 27, 2026

In connection with one of the two themes celebrated at Art Paris 2026, “Babel — Art and Language in France,” the visual artist Gauthier d’Ydewalle presents at the Mairie du 9ème arrondissement de Paris a selection of his works under the title Noosphere, which explores the possibilities of expression and transmission of literary works.

Gauthier d’Ydewalle translates, interprets, and distills into images the books that have profoundly moved him, immersing them in compositions where color, form, tone, and structure work together to convey the deeper essence of the literary, philosophical, or poetic works they embody. At its core, his approach resembles that of a portrait artist—a portraitist of books. To fully engage with his work, one must first see the book not as an inanimate object, but as something closer to a living being. To ground this idea of a text as a living form of thought, d’Ydewalle draws on the philosophical concept of the “noosphere,” developed by Pierre Teilhard de Chardin. The term combines the Greek noüs (mind) and sphaira (sphere, here meaning “space”). The noosphere can thus be understood as the realm of reflective thought, distinct from the biosphere—the domain of living organisms—and the geosphere, the realm of inanimate matter.

Gauthier D’Ydewalle, Céline, Voyage au bout de la nuit, 2017 — 120 x 120 cm Courtesy de l’artiste

About the artist:

Belgian artist Gauthier d’Ydewalle, born in Huy in 1961, has spent the past two decades exploring the expressive potential of photography, with the aim of giving visual form to complex thought. In this approach, he uses abstraction as a language to translate, interpret, and distill the deeper essence of literary, philosophical, and poetic works. Forms, colors, textures, light, objects, composition, and movement all function as meaningful elements within his visual vocabulary. Originally trained as a philosopher, he continues to develop his work in his studio in Rosières-Saint-André, in the Walloon Brabant region of Belgium. His artistic path has also taken him to Brazil, where he has exhibited most frequently. His photographic compositions are now held in public and private collections across some ten countries. His work was notably recognized by Brazilian art critic and curator Paulo Herkenhoff, and several of his pieces entered the collection of the Museu de Arte do Rio in 2015. In 2021, the Musée de la Photographie à Charleroi—one of Europe’s leading photography institutions—hosted a major solo exhibition of his work.