The Future's Rapture II (J.C. avril 2006)
François-Xavier Courrèges’s works resonate with each other, forming a fabric that connects the human dimension of our impulses while developing over time through the creative process. The diluted aspect of the watercolour that the artist uses here echoes the recurrent use of slow motion in his videos. This aesthetic choice gives his creations a fantastical and poetic dimension. The Future’s Rapture II (J.C. avril 2006) takes on a more cinematographic reality through a futuristic vision that expresses an expectation and a desire. The title Future’s Rapture II is a religious reference that evokes the faithful’s hope to travel to paradise after death. The diptych format of these two framed watercolours on paper allows for the presentation of several emotions, between personal projection and collective history. The sober portrait with its soft green hue and piercing gaze seems to express the expectation, attention, even the tension directed towards this delicate rose with its ghostly aspect which seems to be within reach, bending towards the subject’s delicate forehead, without hiding either the beauty of its petals or the danger of its thorns. Will passion and suffering be able to give themselves away before the afterlife?
Text written by Manon Prévost-Van Dooren as part of the partnership between the École du Louvre and Lafayette Anticipations – Fonds de dotation Famille Moulin.
Exhibition
La Galerie des Galeries, Paris (France)
from 27 Oct to 09 Dec 2006
François-Xavier Courrèges
Born in 1974 in Paris, France
François-Xavier Courrèges explore les thématiques de la sensibilité, des sentiments et de la mémoire à travers différents médiums. Il met en avant les joies et les contraintes de l’amour afin de développer un art de l’intime tout en instillant un décalage. Il se positionne dans la fissure entre une société qui valorise le bonheur et la fidélité, et un système où même les démonstrations amoureuses relèvent d’une économie financière. Les symboles de l’enfance sont un langage qu’il utilise fréquemment afin de « restituer la dimension humaine de nos élans », pour reprendre ses propres termes. Il donne à voir une esthétique de l’émotion pour toucher le spectateur tout en délicatesse.
