Artist's Statement



Laurent Fiévet’s installations bring about confrontations between images, re-deploying them in space and re-working them within video montages. Organised into series by theme, their materials are drawn from the realms of painting, film and photography so as to induce unexpected collisions between emblematic images stemming from our cultural heritage. New generations of images created for each specific project or captured by on-site exhibition cameras tend to enter into dialogue with their predecessors, resulting in an even more direct representation of visitors within the pieces.

The aim of the installations is less about putting the images featured into perspective and inducing a shift in the way in which they are traditionally viewed than it is about making use of visitors knowledge and memories of those images, and the sentiments they have doubtless inspired. The decision to base the installations on images with a certain degree of analytical depth, having accrued a number of critical responses over time and having been interpreted by different generations of viewers, derives from the artist’s desire to instantly condition visitors, creating a set of expectations within them that will subsequently be exploited or subverted within the installations. Thus the pieces appeal to the subject’s memories, knowledge and feelings in a closely inter-linked manner, so as to offer an array of differentiated modes of interpretation and approach.

Far from being exempt from auto-biographical data and, indeed, actively suggesting sociological and political insights and critiques, the installations above all set forth a series of reflections on the Image, its aesthetic, its modes of expression, perception, evolution and reception. Featuring the viewer in relation to works re-framed within often interactive or playful contexts, they offer different levels of perception through the paths visitors are invited to follow and the positioning of other viewers within the exhibition space at the same time. The interactive or randomised elements of the pieces and the length of the montages shown allow each visitor to experience the works in a different way and to become more or less actively involved.

The installations organisation into series, each based around a single body of images, and their bringing together within one exhibition allows links to be forged between the different works shown. They invite visitorstxt_quote_single_close thought processes to bounce from one set of images to another, through the thematic domains they inhabit. The common use of motifs, scenographic arrangements and aesthetic choices (which may refer to the rhythms and figures within the montages, a particular colour palette or specific lighting style) works to strengthen their coherence and the links woven between them. Each of the scenographic arrangements can thus be seen as an entity endowed with its own logic and autonomy, but also as part of a whole that sets up a series of resonances between its various constitutive elements.


Copyright © 2016 Laurent Fiévet