Daphné sur Mars

Daphne on Mars, evolving installation of an exponential series of textile sculptures: screen-printed silk satin, inks, jersey, fleece, padding, 2023

Daphne on Mars

The series of textile sculptures Daphne on Mars alludes on the one hand to the journey of the Rover Perseverance in search of micro-organisms on Mars, and on the other hand, to the myth of Daphne who metamorphoses into a laurel tree to escape the amorous assaults of Apollo. In connection with the fabulous antiquity, the textile sculptures Daphne on Mars, update the myth of Daphne by arousing our senses and bringing into play the desire to grasp, while creating frustration in the face of the deprivation of not being able to touch the coveted object. The planet Mars and Daphne also happen to be objects of desire… The textile works in this series are likened to hybrid bodies, bordering on the organic, the vegetal and the aquatic. They are presented as precious elements whose forms seem to want to develop and grow. Their silky surfaces are printed with serigraphs, drawn and inked like images in volume. The recurring motif of a body evoking Daphne on the run, is represented in each sculpture while being revisited. We are invited to go into detail, to observe nuance through repetition, to follow Daphne from one islet to another, from one planet to another. Each textile piece is considered independently, but it can also be associated with another, as if to constitute the signs of an unknown language that we would have to decipher.

The works of this series are exhibited for the first time at Ferme Ika by the Virginie Baro gallery in Saint-Jean de Luz (Basque Country) in 2023 – curated by Virginie Baro

Images © Jeremy Saint-Peyre

All the works are to be seen on the site of the Virginie Baro Gallery