Marie Antoinettes

Marie Antoinettes exhibition from November 18th 2014 to January 6th 2015

I have known Marie-Louise, with her pearly grey coat enhanced with canary yellow points, and also Marie-Elisabeth, with her red hair and dishevelled look, who basked in the sun every morning atop a dunghill.
I grew up on the farm with those hens. They were my female companions. I gave them titles. I dreamt of them as duchesses, countesses, princesses and queens.
I would watch them coming and going in the farmyard, and imagine they were spying on each other, looking up and down at each other and envying each other.
I would listen to their cackling, chattering, gossiping and philosophising.
At the time, Marie-Antoinette was just a hyphenated first name.
When I made her acquaintance years later my countryside was far away, and Versailles was closer.
When I hear her name today time suddenly stands still. My head bows instantly. Everything becomes silent. I hear fabrics rustling and I know she’s coming.
Marie-Antoinette does not walk, she dances.
Marie-Antoinette does not talk, she sings.
Marie-Antoinette has no body, she has no face.
I do not dress Marie-Antoinette. She appears behind the folds, in turns ominous and reassuring.
Mother, sister, friend, lover… with impressive figures, always fragile, and with the retreat possibility that I offer them for protection.
In a spontaneous stroke, I compare these folds with possible moments and emotions from her life. Then I fill her character with colours – compliments – to thank her for agreeing to spend some time with me.
Exhibition from November 19th to December 3rd 2014
Opening Tuesday 18th November at 7:00 p.m.

La galerie de l’Instant
46, rue de Poitou
75003 paris

Exhibition from December 20th to January 6th 2015
Le Pop-up Store
Le Paris d’Anvers
Vlasmarkt 30, 2000 Antwerp, Belgium
Opening December 19th at 7:00 p.m.
Exhibition from Thursday to Sunday, from 11 a.m. to 8 p.m..