nouvelles vanités (2025)

Our relationship with images is undergoing a profound transformation. Our mean of consumption now favors spontaneity and even deliberate imperfection, perceived as a mark of realism. This shift reflects a collective desire for a more immediate connection with the image, its creation process, but also with its author.

This pursuit of authenticity is expressed through a renewed attention to imperfections in digital imagery: technical irregularities—noise, blur, overexposure—are now seen as markers of the real. As a result, artificial intelligence is increasingly trained with datasets that allow it to replicate these flaws, enhancing the credibility of its outputs. Far from being mere anomalies, these artifacts are now recognized as defining elements of an aesthetic that documents an era and questions our relationship with the image.

nouvelles vanités, presented in collaboration with Galerie Charlot, grew from these observations. Inspired by 17th-century vanitas paintings and their meditation on impermanence and the fragility of human life, this series transposes these concerns into the malleability of the digital realm. Whereas these historical paintings evoked the dissolution of the body and materiality, these works reveal the vulnerability of simulated images through their anomalies and distortions. Each piece captures a precise moment in which the artist’s gesture deforms a virtual hand, unstable and altered by a physical simulation.

This body of work emerges from a custom software system designed by the artist to enable real-time interaction with the virtual environment. Over years of development, its granularity has fostered a unique proximity to the simulation, allowing the artist to maintain an acute sensitivity in the act of creation. Each impulse becomes immediately visible, embodying a delicate balance between chaotic dynamics and intent.

Rather than freezing an illusory perfection, the artist embraces the accidental and the spontaneous. This direct engagement with the digital image interrogates both the ergonomics of technology and the distortions the body undergoes within this experience.

Production notes

These works were created during a creative residency at Le Cube Garges from March 13 to 19, 2025, in order to leave a trace of my process as it was at that moment. A performance in a virtual environment was recorded with the specific intention of giving birth to this new body of works printed on paper. This context, like a tripod in my virtual studio, compelled me to adopt a more deliberate approach, encouraging me to frame my subject more carefully within an empty environment. The lighting of this white void was designed to create a sense of distance and contrast with 17th-century vanitas, evoking the screen-like glow and the immateriality of the digital realm, which here gives way to the materiality of paper.

Collaborators

Hippolyte Viannay (Le Cube Garges)
Valérie Hasson-Benillouche
Max Aymeric
Simon Giguère, conseils

Vincent Drouin, Vu

Le Cube Garges
Galerie Charlot
Conseil des Arts et des Lettres du Québec

Presentations

2025, Solo Exhibition, Charlot Gallery, Paris, FR
2025, Residency, Le Cube Garges, Garges-lès-Gonesse, FR