Sans titre
Marc Étienne presents a miniature forest moulded in malleable resin raised on simple trestles that seems to come straight out of the forest of Brocéliande or Alice in Wonderland. This is a world of tales and legends, but the work moves slightly away from the wondrous to take on a stranger and darker dimension suggested by the mushrooms that appear like outgrowths at the foot of these bruised tree trunks—an ordered nature, a perfect replica of reality, and yet nothing more than a decor. Marc Étienne is inspired by the theory developed in the 1970s by the Japanese roboticist Masahiro Mori in his essay entitled “The Uncanny Valley” and quickly applied to 3D animation: despite the extreme realism that animated films can achieve, certain details prevent us from believing in the illusion and send our conscious mind into a state of confusion because it can no longer distinguish between the real and the fake.
Text written by Marianne Tricoire as part of the partnership between the École du Louvre and Lafayette Anticipations – Fonds de dotation Famille Moulin.
Exhibitions
La Galerie des Galeries, Paris (France)
from 13 Sep to 03 Nov 2007
Galerie Georges-Philippe & Nathalie Vallois, Paris (France)
from 28 Sep to 10 Oct 2007