Thibaut Renoulet

Thibaut Renoulet's (°1992) work makes you feel spied upon. His Tribe is there, staring right at us. Heads, masks, fragments of limbs, handles that are also noses, legs supporting body containers, and hands engraved in the material all address us. Some might say that his pieces are eclectic, but he retorts that they are the work of a collective, the one that sits in his head. The work is organic, so to speak: the shapes are not programmed in advance, even though the artist draws and paints a lot, but are modelled as spontaneously as possible in a clay that is often chamotte and in a kind of urgency. One element calls for another, and the pieces grow. Anything can happen: it can collapse! It can grow back... It can crack! He recuts... The colour doesn't suit, he anneals... The texture is too simple, he engraves after firing! The piece lacks relief, so it's highlighted with gilding... As long as the piece is in the workshop, it's subject to change! When it's exhibited, it's already full of life, and we can feel it. The resonances with expressionism and Art brut are numerous, as are those with distant cultures. Combas and Dubuffet come to mind, as do Basquiat and Baselitz. A people rise. The materials discussed, the colours shouted, and the pieces seem to be traversed by a kind of agitation that expresses itself in a language of forms as anthropomorphic as they are utilitarian. Animated and animistic, Thibaut Renoulet's work captures, captures and sometimes upsets.