Laurent Duthion

Laurent Duthion’s art work does not develop within the field of representation, which is something sufficiently rare to be underscored. He barely shows, like a trickle, a few drawings, themselves steeped in essential oils and chemical reagents, and like this the representation was insufficient. For some 15 years he has accordingly been developing a complex body of work involving a great deal of scientific knowledge in works which appear like the inventions of a Gyro Gearloose of a particular kind, moving instantly from botany to cooking, and from the olfactory domain to aquariophilia. His output is made up of bicycle-cameras, altered live trees, olfactory and at times musical masks, a perfume from Antarctica, a deformed book complying with the laws of perspective but always readable, aquaria suitable for experiments such as eating underwater with a nose tube, and various animals such as blind fish swimming in white water verging on being opaque… Rather than representing, Laurent Duthion has decided to turn towards what seems more and more an art of experience, or even an art of living.