Offspace

SHOW CURATED BY : LAETITIA GORSY ARTISTS: AURÉLIE FERRUEL & FLORENTINE GUÉDON, SAMIR MOUGAS, FRANCIS RAYNAUD, YOAN SORIN, ÉVA TAULOIS Offspace spotlights six French artists of the same generation, taking the visitor through the maze of a vibrant composition marked by a powerful graphic language. The title refers to the "official" public process of introduction and identification of an art object, a film or a person. The artists are called on through the diptych form to speak about themselves, draw up a self-portrait, present their official credentials as players on a particular contemporary cultural scene, and share a current criterion – a literary extract, everyday object, portrait of an artist at work or vernacular image – as their latest source of inspiration. Each artist is also given a plinth in the room, so that his or her diptych can be accompanied by a piece from from a series past or in progress. Conceptual connections thus appear in the interstices of the exploration of shared fields of interest, as existence, events and experience directly or indirectly shape forms, objects and stories. Through this generational coexistence, as palpable in the "forms" as in the questionings, we arrive at a clear understanding of the specific leanings that interconnect the urge of young artist and young curator to "make" and to "show". And so we find Samir Mougas and Francis Raynaud, who work with curious materials, reacting in an edgy faceoff with the functional, minimalist works of Éva Taulois. The Taulois oeuvre is fuelled by pop culture references, as are Ferruel & Guédon's drawn-out, obsessive explorations of identity codes. Here these approaches are shown side by side with Yoan Sorin's and his idea of accessing current social and cultural debate. The wallpaper I've made is my response to curator Marie Bechetoille's invitation; it creates imaginary spaces in which new fields of artistic action seem possible.