L’Aire d’un Souffle

This common and specific work takes the form of a long fence constructed on a floor of concrete blocks. The floor is left in its raw state, as is the aluminium fence, the cut-outs of which are the same size as each concrete block. A large hole opens up in the upper part of the fence, suggesting the effect of a gust of wind that has opened up a passage through its mesh.

L'aire d'un souffle is first and foremost a sculpture in line with the previous work of both artists. The installation takes the form of a perforated visual barrier, allowing us to see through and beyond... A grid for observing the surrounding urban landscape, a kind of insurmountable obstacle, a boundary that can be understood in many ways. This fence is not open to the passage of people but to our gaze, symbolically pierced by a gust whose origin can also be subject to multiple interpretations.

The fence is also perched on a territory of its own, inviting the public to climb and thus change their point of view. The pattern of the concrete elevation lifted from the ground of the Esplanade recalls the grid of the fence in a horizontal unfolding, interrupted by a cutoff designed to establish a line of communication between both elements of the installation. The area thus defined becomes a space in itself, a field of action where the public can move around, experiment and interact. 

The grid has long played a fundamental role in Western art as a model for organising space. But it was especially in the 20th century that it became an aesthetic form in its own right. Today it is used in a variety of ways: as a textile weave, a graphic grid, a computer matrix, a documentary device, etc. The grid continues to appear as a complex and ambiguous structure that evokes the rational order of science while opening up unexpected spaces towards reality, imagination, intuition and creativity.

This sculpture, set in the symbolic location of the Solidarnosc Esplanade of the European Parliament, also speaks of the state of the world, underlining the territorial fractures, the separation of blocs and the multiplication of borders. It points them out and opposes them in a "breath", in an openness to the possible free circulation of beings and meaning, to the maintenance of a flow and the energy of a necessary "aeration".

L'aire d'un souffle delineates a field open to all these possible interpretations, a land rich with a plurality of meanings and escaping any overly literal approach. 

This work also affirms that where obstacles are erected, where confinement threatens, good artists always have escape plans to offer us.