Large-format drawings show portions of the primitive forest in Costa Rica. Made from photographs taken by the writer Julien Burri, the illustrations are produced from the projection of the photographic image on the paper support. The process is based on a technique borrowed from analog photographic printing, through the use of a matrix (here, the negative is replaced by a photocopy, a positive image, partially altered), which allows an enlarged reproduction of the photographic subject, made possible by the use of an overhead projector.

The illustrations show a dense vegetation, which tends towards abstraction and are made from photographs taken in Switzerland, in natural spaces that reminds of primary forests. The production process of the drawings is based on a technique borrowed from the analog photography, using a matrix (here, the negative is replaced by a photocopy of the photographic image in positive), from which the forest representations are revilled by decalking with graphite and carbon pencils, and made possible, thanks to a light source diffused by a luminous table.

The shadows of endemic plants, such as brambles, ferns, rosehips, hawthorns, dogwood, pine, hazel, oak, are drawed at the edge of forests. Of a rough construction, the charcoal drawings – branches of calcined willows – are imprints of an ephemeral state, which are embodied on a fragile support of tissue paper that had previously been used for the drying of prints, which retained the folds and embossing of the matrix plates used. All these representations of plants in negative, evokes to faith a theatre of primitive shadows, projected on the walls of a cave, but also the medium of the engraving, from which are borrowed remnants of the printing process, which allow to fix in matter, the organic forms in motion.

Of oral tradition, the wonderful tales (or fairy tales) were the object from the XVIIth century, of a literary transcription by authors as Charles Perrault, Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm or Hans Christian Andersen, as weel. Popular in the XIXth century, these narratives are then illustrated by artists as Gustave Doré. The series Curious (the knifed), proposes a free interpretation of the iconography that Doré created for The Bluebeard.

Engraving plate and prints realized in situ at BAC Bâtiment d’art contemporain – Le commun in Geneva, within the collective exposure [terra incognita], conceived by the Geneva engraving studio. The matrix is engraved on a board of OSB, identical to those used for the construction of the labyrinth on which are exposed the works of 30 invited artists.   At the same time engraved plate and element of the labyrinth, the support of the matrix is constituted by waste wood compressed. The editions, printed in three states of the engraving, reveal the structure of the material employed, in dialogue with the represented subject; a forest of conifers.

In the Amerindian tradition, the shaman develops a sacred medicine. He cures, solves concrete problems or brings answers, appealing to a series of rituals. The most important of it consists of a journey, realized thanks to the sound of drum, which allows the shaman to enter into a modified consciousness state. In this state of trance, he is guided by animals of powers, which allow him to get in contact with the Devine source.

Masquerade is a series of men’s portraits, the peculiarity of which is to present no facial features. Only the pilosity – executed with realism and precision- allows to dread the face of the represented characters. Strange, to see disturbing, these disembodied portraits remind ghosts, masks or death mask. The absence of pulpit evokes the dematerialization, the space, but also the impermanence of the organic matter, the precariousness of the life. By contrast, the facial and capillary pilosity represents the strength of life, as well as the beard of a deceased pursues its growth, some times even after the death of the individual.

Sitting in the dark, I focus on a conscious observation of the thoughts or images which cross my spirit. Accompanied by a series of repetitive sounds, the state of consciousness modified attempted in meditation, develops. The visualization of geometrical forms gradually replaces the flow of the thoughts. In a process comparable with that of the automatic writing, I transcribe without to watch on a paper sheet laid out in front of me, the forms-guide visualized, constantly in transformation. In order to limit as much as possible a control on the development of the image, the pencils used are randomly selected, without knowing the color of them. The drawing, as an incarnation of the geometries in the matter, is apprehended only once the experiment is complited.