MATHIEU BRIAND

Êtres Présents

Whether just lying down or lost in his daydreams, the subject is still very much what Briand is talking about here. He scrutinizes his subject’s repose, making him twirl and arch, retaining only his feet when, elsewhere, he deprives him of them, or keeps only his head, which he multiplies, stacks or monumentalizes.
Human. Too human. Is one ever human enough? The lost wax bronzes appeared during the pandemic. This line of enquiry sprang from the limits of the precarious circumstances imposed on access to the usual means of artistic production. A handy little bit of modelling clay and a lot of time freed up by the lockdown – such was the origin of these works. Briand has always wanted his inventions to speak to the largest possible audience, in keeping with the universalist ambition that still drives many of the works in progress. The first modelled figures are long, drawn-out silhouettes whose bodies have ingested their arms, absorbed them and made them disappear. Presented flat, as if sleeping, they skirt the balance problem encountered by other, wheel-like figures made up of one or more bodies placed end-to-end. In the latter case a balance, even if shaky, is sought, so as to immobilize the sculpture in the desired posture. The artist distinguishes two groups in this compulsive output: bodies at rest and dreams. The latter exhibition figures frozen in acrobatic attitudes, as if in levitation. Some of the small sculptures embody a memory, a daydream, such as the vision of a horseman fording a stream.

-from Bronze Dreamings by Michel Blancsubé

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