Image Canyon

Conceived as a path meandering through a spectacular canyon, Jérémie Gindre’s exhibition presents us sculptures, drawings, paintings and tourist signs. The starting point of the itinerary is a cliff – possibly the one looming over Fri Art, or the one which Lewis and Clark described while travelling up the Missouri River in 1803 during their famous expedition through the still-unknown western territories of America. “We have encountered several rocks resembling wood,” wrote the explorers in a bafflingly simple statement. The quote was picked up by Jérémie Gindre in a painting-cum-text echoing a collection of petrified boards, setting the tone for a series of singular geographical discoveries. It also evokes pareidolia, an tendency to discern familiar figures – often human or animal – in all sorts of abstract objects such as rocks. Acting as a backdrop to the exhibition, these potential visions haunt the four stage-rooms of Image Canyon. A panorama emerges under a mixed lighting: the dawn of discovery and the high noon of tourism.