Au Travers de la Serrure

“Hidden behind a tree, sheltered by a bush, cramped in the alcove of a gloomy building or your own silhouette, cavorting in search of your goal, be careful not to put your elbows on the table. Welcome to this escapade, where the unrealities of six designers will carry you away in their dreams, utopias and memories. This is not a call to vigilance, but an invitation to lean in and contemplate. Leave your markers at the entrance and don’t expect them to ever be returned.”

Au travers de la Serrure, a carte blanche for Collectif DdD, brings together six artists from the young contemporary drawing scene: Alix Le Boucher, Héloïse Farago, Jules Boillot, Lila Vignot, Paul Lemaître and Evan Barbedette, to create a shared landscape.

Like a cabinet of curiosities, the exhibition brings together the singularities of cartoonists discovered through the French-language fanzine scene and scattered across the country. Whether they’re medieval scenes, taken from video games or bring the domestic into the exhibition space, the works presented are as much drawings as they are invitations to immerse ourselves in them. Au Travers de la Serrure highlights the visitor’s role behind the fourth wall of images, restricting him or her to the position of spectator, or even spy, due to the impossibility of verifying whether or not he or she is welcome by the drawing. So lean in, move on, or take the time to witness the scenes before your eyes.

If the motif intervenes in the exhibition space as a punctuation mark, this is without counting on the rhythm imposed by the different shapes of the supports. Here, the artists propose a vision that reinvents the quadrilateral form in favor of gleaned, cut, torn and assembled supports. Through a vivid, sometimes acidic palette, the works on display summon both a certain intranquillity and an emancipating freedom.