When Francis Ponge published The Nature of Things in 1942, the war was global and terrible. As bombs rained down from the skies of Europe, the poet set about examining the ordinary objects of his daily life. Prose poems dedicated to the crate, the loaf of bread or the candle follow one another in this The Nature of Things, which has become a literary monument. "It's by starting from the bottom, the author explains, "that we have any chance of rising (...) It's a one-to-one party, to the point of losing our heads". In truth, what the author of Le Savon and La Crevette dans tous ses états took seriously, the object of all his attention, which he pursued for the rest of his life, was language. In the studio, within the walls of their home-studio, the artists gathered here take as their objects spoons, potatoes, toothbrushes and even the indispensable mobile phone: all appropriately banal things. In their company, the artists set out to 'disaffect' their medium, whether photography or video. As the poet once said, "Nothing is more gratifying than the constant insurrection of things against the images imposed on them. Things just won't stay still like images". The artist, like the writer, has this recurring daydream: he chooses an object, approaches it, turns around it; yet he fails to represent the object portrayed, which evades him, even rebels. Stubbornly, he returns to resume the dialogue with the object. The exhibition features these secret conversations. Whether they're solemn or absurd, ascetic or long-winded, they all express the tenacious desire of each artist to find his or her own way of being in the world.


(Raphaëlle Stopin, curator)