Gilles Picouet

For the past few years, the focus of Picouet’s practice has rested upon the relationship between interchangeable elements that can be bound together, what he defines as the “first matter”. The installation of a large puzzle placed on the terrace of the Café Union emerges from this practice. This work marks its presence by the combination of pieces of very different natures that he himself fabricates: abrasives and concrete. Because of their oppositional character, the first thick, supple, fibre filled, and cut-out, the second irregular, robust, and moulded, the puzzle itself poses problematic questions. The artist questions the assemblage of the pieces in the function of the space, time and the action that gives, according to him, “the measure of the rhythm of the space”. Picouet, in a way, organizes a witnessing of his individual implication and investment. The work integrates the spectator, inviting them to circulate in the empty spaces of the brainteaser.

Puzzle 1999
Concrete pieces
1m x 1m each