Paul Paillet

Paul Paillet's works are inhabited by ghosts. Ghosts that manifest themselves from one piece to the next, lodged here and there in the fibers of the paper. They are evoked during the production process, which consists of engraving a matrix of drawings or words, before embossing on pigmented paper. Each mold, the fruit of the artist's expertise in ceramics, is preserved and then reused. These dies are intended to multiply the pieces, bringing them closer to series production; however, the final result is always unique. The copy lies elsewhere. It lies in the trace left by the mold, like a reminiscence of previous works, watermarked on the surface of the paper. The relationship between all the pieces is thus established during the production process, which engenders both the visible and invisible aspects of the work.

Paul Paillet's work tells a story about the artist, in hollow. It is composed of layers, like the subtle allusions to private life that provide some of the symbolic material for his pieces. Intimacy is also suggested through the evocation of everyday rituals (breakfast in Fascination for Fire, Centre d'édition contemporaine, Geneva, 2020) or the representation of everyday objects (sofas in Paths of Desire Pass through Chaos, Villa Bernasconi, Geneva, 2024) as frames for memory. However, the memories - in the background - do not tend towards autobiography. On the contrary, the singularity of existence is questioned in the light of society, and personal history becomes part of the collective narrative.

Christine Glassey, 2024