As I have always been very interested in the origins of our winter festivities, I make a link between my work and the origins of the pre-Christian “carnival”.
Wild man, engraving from Nuremburg
Mardi-Gras Bordeaux 1990
Long before its incorporation into the Christian calendar, Carnival played an important role in the key transitional moment in the Solo-Lunar calendar. It was the time of rites of passage to ward off winter and the season of the dead – a brief, permissive, popular celebration dedicated to the quest for the light, the fertile moon, and the awakening of nature.
Feast of St Jean at my father’s house, 1995
The trees of the Sun and the Moon, J. Wauquelin, 1448
The carnival logic of my projects is easier to understand if you look into the background of the traditional festivals between the winter and summer solstices, when nature set the rhythm of daily life.
These rites and traditions are the cornerstones of my creations: creativity, freedom, the extra-ordinary, the outrageous, sociability, festive celebrations, and a hint of mockery.
Added to this is my faith in the wondrous and, perhaps, a refusal to believe that Father Christmas does not exist. This is why I have dedicated my life to these invisible, mysterious, bizarre and lyrical worlds.
