The world of crime fiction is fascinating in that it awakens our secret fears, our buried fascination for “evil”, this fascination that we dominate but which can resurface at any time.
When I was younger I noticed: James Bonds are better when the villain is strong and charismatic.
I like to create universes. Universes to which I give birth through images, photographs. These visions are like fixed representations of a film which is projected in me.
I am a photographer and I dream of cinema.
With the series “The Villains”, which I have been working on for more than ten years, I wanted to take a look at the violence in our society through a tribute to these antagonistic characters who would become my messengers.
In these paintings that I want to be cinematic, I develop film scenes, I create still images that I want to be strong, impactful, tense and often parabolic.
While making still images, I dream that these frozen moments come to life. I am in love with almost every shot in the films of Sergio Leone, absolute master of the genre, but also the thrillers of Nicolas Winding Refn, David Lynch and even Na Hong-jin. My world is inhabited by this culture of film.
By taking the viewer by the hand I lead them to the crossroads, it is then up to their mind to imagine the film of this story. This “cinema”, which was born in my head, then unfolds its scenario in the head of the spectator. It’s up to him to finish the film reluctantly or for his own pleasure. A new breath is thus given to the obsessions and fantasies that are mine.
By mixing violence, absurdity, irony, nightmares and reflection on our society, I also hope that the viewer can sometimes question their own prejudices.
“The Villains” also sometimes invites us to question what we define as “evil”, a variable notion, a moral value which can thus be considered from different angles.
And as in all good thrillers, for the universe of a story to be truly fascinating, you have to be dealing with a “real villain”. The more cruel and evil the “villain” turns out to be, the more the power of a film is increased tenfold and its hero grows, and undoubtedly our questions on the subject are only reinforced.
This is all that my series “The Villains” attempts to highlight.
