Maxime Drouet: L'instant effacé

For his first exhibition at the Galerie Chenus Longhi, Maxime Drouet offers the viewer, immersed in the half-light, a unique experiential immersion in the midst of paintings on glass and photographs in backlit boxes.

L'instant effacé, the title of the exhibition, emphasizes the moment of grace when the painting is done, the moment before, the one that no longer exists outside the photo. If one wishes to leave the space of the train and enter the space of the exhibition, one must observe Maxime Drouet's photographs as art objects. His photographs are presented in light boxes because it is essential for him to find the glass and the light in the display of his works. The glass of the box corresponds to the window of the train and gives the work a magical character, like when, as a child, we wanted to look behind the television set to understand how the images came to life on the screen. It is this vertical plane, the border between one reality - that of the outside of the carriage, that of graffiti and illegality - and another, that of the inside of the carriage, that of the user, of daily life, but also of the train itself, a vector of nostalgia.
The window is obscured by the paint, blinding the train user, the viewer of the landscape who is no longer one and who cannot see the work painted outside. It is the effect of depth, of ubiquity that interests Maxime Drouet. He would like to be inside and outside at the same time.
The backlit box diffuses a light that also reactivates the reality of the train, and gives a plastic power to the image. Maxime Drouet's work has often been compared to a cathedral, a monument to the glory of graffiti, and his boxes to contemporary stained glass windows, because there could be an idea of sacredness there. The duality between light and shadow, between day and night, illegality and legality, anonymity and celebrity. Everything here is in the making and in the process of becoming, for Maxime Drouet's expressive palette is wide and his obsessions will always be a source of discovery.