Victoire Barbot

Victoire Barbot sometimes mentions the notion of failure when she talks about her artistic work; a life experience in the confines of closed offices, incubation in a dormant environment, when the tools that guarantee the performance of a company remain inert, unproductive. This specific experience is perhaps what might give us further insight into her penchant for scrap materials, which she salvages and restores. Focusing on this specific aspect of her work helps to interpret some of its purposes — consequently, her gestures may appear to be driven by an intense desire for “restoration”. From paper pulp “drawings” made from discarded administrative files to composite sculptural assemblages, and from drawings made with technical invoices to velvet “paintings”, her field of experimentations is an open one. It is above all a matter of revitalising and reorganising, as if to give things a new (poetic) meaning. Through the diversity of the mediums she uses and protocols she devises, Victoire Barbot also tackles the notion of the translation of forms. Furthermore, her ceaseless shifting from volumes to lines tells of a need for permanent motion.