About me
"The authentic artist is the one who ensures that those who discover his work, and who, even temporarily, travel with it, recognize themselves as explorers of wonders rather than surveyors of abysses.
At least, that's what I hope for him and what I, personally, also hope for myself.
I understand well that a significant part of the art world chooses to challenge, including through coarseness and violence, the violences and crudeness that the powerful inflict on the weaker.
I am fully aware of the turpitudes and crimes committed in the name of profit and domination.
But I have chosen to follow another path: to follow and comment on the works of artists who make their presence in the world a clear commitment to the side of light, wonder, and beauty.
The beauty I speak of here is not reducible to the work's adherence to the aesthetic criteria of the moment, but certainly to the potential that some works have to open up more conversations, exchanges, controversies, and elegant confrontations between all possible points of view.
The artists who have this 'competence' have my respect, my admiration, and my friendship.
Gilbert Marcel is one of them.
We met a few years ago at the initiative of his sister, herself an artist at heart, when Gilbert Marcel proposed to exhibit his first 'kinetic machines' made of metal, movement, and light. Since then, his work has never ceased to evolve, exploring the combination of different materials: driftwood, precious wood, metals, glass, plants, lighting.
His sculptures, whether minimalist or monumental (I am thinking here of the magnificent tribute to Leonardo da Vinci, with his installation of inflatable structures 32m by 5m) are generally meditations on the tortuous relationships between Humans and nature.
Gilbert has understood and assimilated everything about kinetic art. Movement and light, but also the consideration of the visitor's presence and the possibility he allows them to personally get involved, contribute greatly to the attraction his works exert on the visitor.
Gilbert Marcel is not just a dreamer.
He is an entrepreneur of his own dreams, into which he invests himself without waiting for the adherence of others.
When, at last, the works are presented to visitors, and fortunately he is there, present to welcome them, he behaves like a prodigal child, fully available for sharing the jubilation and joy: at that moment, whether you are a prince or a peasant makes no difference to him: you have just become a member of his beautiful and merry family."
Pierre BONGIOVANNI, Artistic Director of the Maison Laurentine, Exhibition Curator.
At least, that's what I hope for him and what I, personally, also hope for myself.
I understand well that a significant part of the art world chooses to challenge, including through coarseness and violence, the violences and crudeness that the powerful inflict on the weaker.
I am fully aware of the turpitudes and crimes committed in the name of profit and domination.
But I have chosen to follow another path: to follow and comment on the works of artists who make their presence in the world a clear commitment to the side of light, wonder, and beauty.
The beauty I speak of here is not reducible to the work's adherence to the aesthetic criteria of the moment, but certainly to the potential that some works have to open up more conversations, exchanges, controversies, and elegant confrontations between all possible points of view.
The artists who have this 'competence' have my respect, my admiration, and my friendship.
Gilbert Marcel is one of them.
We met a few years ago at the initiative of his sister, herself an artist at heart, when Gilbert Marcel proposed to exhibit his first 'kinetic machines' made of metal, movement, and light. Since then, his work has never ceased to evolve, exploring the combination of different materials: driftwood, precious wood, metals, glass, plants, lighting.
His sculptures, whether minimalist or monumental (I am thinking here of the magnificent tribute to Leonardo da Vinci, with his installation of inflatable structures 32m by 5m) are generally meditations on the tortuous relationships between Humans and nature.
Gilbert has understood and assimilated everything about kinetic art. Movement and light, but also the consideration of the visitor's presence and the possibility he allows them to personally get involved, contribute greatly to the attraction his works exert on the visitor.
Gilbert Marcel is not just a dreamer.
He is an entrepreneur of his own dreams, into which he invests himself without waiting for the adherence of others.
When, at last, the works are presented to visitors, and fortunately he is there, present to welcome them, he behaves like a prodigal child, fully available for sharing the jubilation and joy: at that moment, whether you are a prince or a peasant makes no difference to him: you have just become a member of his beautiful and merry family."
Pierre BONGIOVANNI, Artistic Director of the Maison Laurentine, Exhibition Curator.