Les oiseaux

From 9th March to 7th April 2024 [Extented until April 20]

Solo show – Violaine Desportes

Galerie Ars Longa

March celebrates the return of spring and with it its procession of birds. “Les oiseaux” (the birds) is the title of Violaine Desportes’ first Solo Show at the Galerie Ars Longa. This series follows on from “Ravissement” (Rapture), in which Violaine Desportes depicted teenagers caught in the act of taking flight, freeing themselves from their bodies fettered by all sorts of visible and invisible boundaries – norms, determinisms, neighbourhoods. Using the same protocol (taking photos of young people practising a sport), Violaine Desportes captures skateboarders ready to do battle with the laws of gravity. Framed at bust level, the figures discreetly evoke the putti of sacred painting, the little winged heads that cheerfully accompany the elevating movements of Christ, Mary and the Saints. Singing to the Icares of our time, the representation oscillates between rising and falling, ordinary and sacred. But “birds”, says Violaine, are also “a quality of the eye”. It’s a disposition of the eye that sees a radiance (colour, texture, symbol, etc.) beyond the utilitarian function of the object. So it’s hardly surprising to find urban rubbish bins in the ‘Birds’ exhibition, where the play of transparency invites contemplation.

Following on from last year’s Variations urbaines (Urban variations), The Birds seems to place the street as the artist’s preferred field of investigation, while at the same time inviting the viewer to see this territory in a different light.

viewing room