Trois fois rien

One typically collects objects that are becoming scarce. For many years, Raphaël Dallaporta has been collecting objects that proliferate. He refers to them as “UO - Unidentified Objects”; they are not “flying,” as they are gathered from the ground in public spaces. In Paris, New York, and Lisbon, they all resemble one another and have been patiently selected for their lack of function and their unrecognizable origins. Sometimes colorful and often black, made of plastic, rubber, or metal, these simple forms are all anthropogenic: they embody human activity and constitute its remnants. They are also entropic: they seem to obey a troubling physical law, much like the “kipple” described by Philip K. Dick in Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?, written sixty years ago and later adapted for the screen as Blade Runner—useless debris that proliferates as soon as it is no longer attended to.

In order to exhibit them for the first time, Raphaël Dallaporta brings together his collection of “Unidentified Objects,” arranging them into a network that forms a constellation of mobiles. By slowly setting into motion in the air these light objects gathered from the ground, he applies a principle that runs throughout his work, one he derives from the Danish astronomer Tycho Brahe (1546-1601) and his Latin motto: “Suspiciendo despicio, despiciendo suspicio”—“By looking up, I look down; by looking down, I look up.” This shift in perspective and values, to which the artist invites us in the exhibition, is accompanied by a compelling counterpoint: each object is paired with its image, a photogram akin to its shadow. Suspended at the opposite end of the flexible rod, the image acts as a counterweight, establishing a balance that reanimates what had been cast aside.

Next to Nothing is Raphaël Dallaporta's seventh solo exhibition at Jean-Kenta Gauthier.

(Jean-Kenta Gauthier, April 2026)