Nicolas Puyjalon

Nicolas Puyjalon’s work is best expressed through his use of performance art.
To begin with, the artist marks out a space using adhesive tape, then builds rickety structures made out of salvaged materials, a joyful and colourful chaos amid which he carries out actions, dramatic and grotesque quests doomed to failure and ridicule.
His body, which is the main tool in his work – in accordance with the medium’s tradition –, displays clumsiness, but also obstinacy and effort, before it finally drops from exhaustion.
A poetic mood tinged with humour and melancholy emanates from these actions, these undertakings that were never meant to be achievable – a mood that can also be found in the orchestrations that Nicolas Puyjalon creates using several techniques: writing, drawing, collage. Without conceding to depiction, the elements that make up these orchestrations – stand-alone pieces that adapt to various reactivation contexts – describe an imaginary and tangible space and allow one to map out movement based on the analogy between paper and space.

Translated by Lucy Pons, 2022