Curated by Francesca Fontana, the show presents a selection of works resulting from the partnership of French-Swiss videographer Yannick Jacquet (1980) with Belgian engraver Fred Penelle (1976 - 2020), made starting in 2011 for different exhibition venues all over the world and part of the “Mécaniques Discursives” art project.The duo’s poetic brings together two epochs – of Gutenberg and Big Data – that are worlds apart. Old engraving techniques are taken out of their traditional context into wall projections, recycled objects, mosaics of drawings and 3D installations.The result is astonishing: a universe of imaginative iconographies, where times collide in a narrative maze where there is just one rule:“Don’t follow the guide”.
“Penelle’s research takes its cue from existing familiar and evocative images that the artist has reinterpreted, re-elaborated and enriched with details, arriving at totally new forms of which he becomes author. And so he gives rise to a world teeming with hybrid creatures, mutant beings, bizarre objects and mythological species that recall the fantastical visions of Bosch.And like in the Flemish artist's paintings,” explains curator Francesca Fontana, “every element seems to take on a particular meaning, different and deeper than what it represents, which everyone can interpret at whim. Jacquet makes this symbolic imaginary come to life: using the codes of contemporary graphic design and data design, the artist performs a process that takes elements belonging to different spheres out of their context and combines them in a sort of surrealist automatism in which the animated figures chase each other along the walls in a series of chain reactions.”
