cayenne

text : Franck Balland

an exhibition by julien quentel, at Pauline Perplexe, Arcueil, 2022

curator : Franck Balland

I would like not to lock this exhibition in any mood through my words. I hate that, these exhibition texts full of emotions, which forcefully overplay effects that should be played out elsewhere. I hate that almost as much as when I’m told what to see, or rather, what to understand through what I see – as this was the question, or the issue, in short, the goal to be achieved.

We can therefore stick to some stable information: the exhibition is called Cayenne: it is the name of the mechanic’s dog, right next to the house. It is also the name of a city, a luxury car and a chilli pepper. Four sculptures of different nature and scale are installed there. They do not seem to have any particular relationship with the above-mentioned elements, but if you feel the urge to make them emerge, no one will judge you. Without going into too much detail, you will notice that the space (the place as a whole, what links or distances the works together, or with us) has been treated with consideration – it is a significant aspect of the artist’s practice. For the rest, I like that his works always defeat what one might want to say about them. It’s because of their relative poverty, I think. To the fact that they give themselves to be seen without any artifice, but perhaps not without modesty.

I do not wish to let my reading contaminate the end of this text, but it is obvious that in this balance, something moves me deeply.