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GUILLAUME LEBLON
Les Prairies's artists
Sketch for Portrait de l’homme politique en sportif occasionnel, 2012. Courtesy of the artist and galery Jocelyn Wolff, Paris.
Guillaume Leblon's sculptures and films develop different natural or domestic landscapes
rife with phenomena of submersion, burial, or disappearance. And yet, the passage of time
does not sound a metaphysical alarm for this artist, but rather astonishment at seeing that
traces endure whereas things disappear. The studio is a place of transit, sometimes of
retention. The architectural and furniture elements of his sculptures preserve the memory
of the bodies whose scale, size and spirit they contain. Since 2009 Leblon has developed a
family of sculptures designed like collages into which fragmentary human presences are
invited. They recall, amongst other references, the fragmentation of ancient ruins. They
are assemblies built around either the whole or a part of a piece of furniture that acts as
a structuring device. Elements from the studio are grafted on to this – the side of a desk, a
pharmacy display cabinet, for example – some of his pieces preserve the horizontality of the
reclining body. Others suggest a vertical stature against which the body can be measured.
For Les Prairies, Guillaume Leblon has created a sculpture that is also a potential ladder,
or even a perch. The wall bars in the centre suggest the possibility of climbing but stability
is threatened by the unusual way in which it is secured – anchored to the ground by
brass cables. Two moulded ceramic legs suspended by the ankles mark a suspension of
movement. All the same, the object suggests exercise for the body: press-ups, stretching, and
limbering up.
H. M. tr. J. H.
Born in 1971 in Lille (France), lives and works in Paris (France).
Production
Les Ateliers de Rennes 2012.
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