PARIS.- Galerie Eric Mouchet presents re/ productions, Cyril Zarcone’s first solo show in Paris, from 12 March until 16 April 2016.

Builder of Sculptures
Self-proclaimed “Bricoleur Supérieur” (Superior Handyman), Cyril Zarcone likes our gaze to linger over the details of his constructions and the techniques used in the design of his sculptures. Often, he leaves visible traces of the processes implemented in order to create his pieces and also give as much importance to the stages of construction as to the final result.

This “Bricolage supérieur” (Superior DIY) as he sees it, is the use of tools and techniques suitable for technicians and workers (elements of formwork, protection and structural support), which inspire him to create these sculptures. Without specialist training and with his own knowledge, he draws on these instruments of the construction industry and building sites by reproducing them. He says himself: DIY is not the tinkering but rather a means of making better what we already have.

He therefore creates these works, starting with ‘outils-objets’ (utility object), which will be scrapped once used. However, when he rebuilds them, in a way that appears to be identical, he disposes of the reproduced object, of its primary function. This function will only remain in the essence of the transformed object. He therefore gives back the sculpture its beauty, its original shape and clears it of its useful considerations.

All around this process, there is a creation based on the starkness of the function, to return to original supposed state of things. Like taking a step backwards, which allows us to further access the first shape further, almost allowing us a glimpse of the mental development of its creator and the needs which have pushed him to build such an object.

Sculptor of Constructions
In other cases, when Cyril Zarcone not only reinvents the form and reconstruction but uses other materials (paper, plaster or even expanded polystyrene), he plays with perceptions, and leaving them suspended by the fragility of his sculptures, which once approached, show that they support nothing, no longer carry anything and are often maintained by what surrounds them. These transfers of materials push the utilitarian austerity further from the form created by the artist to completely annihilate it.

In 2011, Cyril Zarcone created Contre-Fiche , a five-metre high falsework structure made from extruded polystyrene, which only supported the nature of its form, but in reality it is fastened to the wall on which it is resting. In 2012, with Protection , he recovered a wall which had absolutely no purpose with reinforced tarpaulin and traces of remaining debris of the montage of this ensemble which themselves created simple motifs reminiscent of a fresco. In 2015 he produced Ouverture and used a pre-existing passage in the space at Galerie Eric Mouchet and recovered it in filmed plywood, blocked by the battens of wood without any fastenings. He left the viewer to believe voluntarily that this installation supports the opening but in reality it is the opening that supports, with full tension, its installation.

These constructions are no longer the only simple reproductions of elements from construction sites, but good and beautiful sculptures which lead us to question not only the form of what they are but also the preconceptions they highlight.