Jean-Rémy Papleux

Paintings and movies

JEAN-RÉMY PAPLEUX born on the 29th june1977 +33 677761853 / jrpapleux@gmail.com www.jeanremypapleux.com100 rue de Charonne, 75011 Paris

Shows

2009 - Fanny between myth and reality . solo show . Cité internationale des arts . Paris 2008 - Zero gravity . Galerie des Beaux-Arts . collective show . Metz, France Curator : Justin Morin . With Jean-Baptiste Bernadet, Sofia Boubolis, Olivier Costa-Théfaine, Pierre Debusschere, Claire Decet, Eva Evrard, Samuel François, Justin Morin, Sandrine Pelletier, Santiago Reyes, Eric Stephany 2007 - Alone in the dark . Galerie Bortier . collective show . Bruxelles Curator : Justin Morin . With Jean-Baptiste Bernadet, Sofia Boubolis, Claire Decet, Samuel François, Justin Morin, Sandrine Pelletier, Santiago Reyes, Zimmerfrei2006 - Jeune Création . collective show . La Bellevilloise . Paris 2005 - Mulhouse 005 . collective show . Parc des expositions . Mulhouse, France - Jeunisme 2 . FRAC Champagne-Ardenne . Reims, France Curator : François Quintin . collective show : Gilles Balmet, Nicolas Boulard, Sylvain Bourget, Benoit Broissat, Julie Faure-Brac, Elie Cristiani, Julien Discrit, Ariane Michel, Mathieu Simon - Solo show, Carré Vauban, espace d’art contemporain . Longwy, France2004 - Sur le Front . Le Triage, centre d’art contemporain . collective show . Paris Curator : Cécile Marie : Christophe Baudson, Marc Chevalier, Sandrine Fallet, Mounir Fatmi, Luc Léontoing, Florent Mattei, Audrey Nervi, Eric Tabuchi, Cédric Teisseire, Richard Tronson, Ingrid Maria Sinibaldi - Circulez . Ecole des Beaux-Arts/CIPAC . Metz, France 2003 - Norapolis 1.0 . Saint-Pierre aux Nonains . Metz, France - Le Tragique . Ecole des Beaux-Arts de Metz, France

Studies

Art school of Metz, France . 1999-2004 . Master degree with congratulations

Publications

2008 - “Zero Gravity” . exhibition catalog2006 - “Jeune Création” . exhibition catalog 2005 - “Mulhouse 005” . exhibition catalog - “Jeunisme 2” . Les presses du réel / Le collège édition2004 - “Sur le front” . Edition Le Triage - “Le Monde” . Article of Philippe Dagen . 2003 - “Norapolis” . exhibition catalog

Grants and prizes

2007 - Octobre rouge, festival d’art vidéo. 1er prix DRAC Lorraine . Luxembourg - Cité internationale des arts . Residency program . Paris - Aide individuelle à la création . DRAC Champagne-Ardenne2005 - Aide individuelle à la création . DRAC Champagne-Ardenne

“Julie”2007 . HUILE SUR TOILE . DETAIL 115 X 125 CM

“julie” 2007. DETAIL. HUILE SUR TOILE. 120 X 132 CM,

“Julie”2007 . OIL ON CANVAS. 115 X 125 CM , 115 X 125 CM , 120 X 132 CM

“Cécile”2008 . DETAIL. HUILE SUR TOILE. 115 X 125 CM,

“Cécile”2008 . DETAIL. HUILE SUR TOILE. 118 X 132 CM,

“Cécile”2008 . OIL ON CANVAS . 115 X 125 CM , 100 X 108 CM , 115 X 125 CM , 120 X 132 CM

Show at Le Triage . “Sur le front”OCTOBER 2004

Show at Le Triage . “Sur le front”OCTOBER 2004

“Flows surround the rout”2006 . HDV . INSTALLATION 3 SCREENS . 4’50

A young girl’s ride merges with his mental trip. Sensations of past drama meets the present instant through a landscape of symbolic and referencial details, on three screens.

The story of “Flows surround the rout” implies a particular editing using fragmentation, ruptures, and multiple point of views, which imposes the viewer to be absorbed into the installation, in a singular space.

movie viewable at jeanremypapleux.com/en/

“Anne-Sophie”2004 . OIL ON CANVAS . 115 X 125 CM

“Vanessa 2” 2005. DETAIL. HUILE SUR TOILE. 93 X 72 CM

“Vanessa 2” 2005. DETAIL. HUILE SUR TOILE. 110 X 115 CM,

“Vanessa 2”2005 . OIL ON CANVAS . 93 X 72 CM , 110 X 115 CM

Show at FRAC Champagne-Ardenne . “Jeunisme 2”FEBRUARY - APRIL 2005

“Not what you want”2004 . DV . 3 MIN . 2 SCREENS

Two young people apart: the memory of their story unfolds on a dual screen.

This device gives the viewer the possibility of two different views of the same scene, while the two different screens also refer to separate visions of two young people. We can read their story as an open book, by investing it.

movie viewable at jeanremypapleux.com/en/

“Lorie”2006. PENCIL, PEN ON PAPER. 45 X 60 CM.

“Vanessa”2003 . OIL ON CANVAS . 115 X 125 CM

“Jeanne”2003 . OIL ON LINEN . 115 X 125 CM

“Mélanie”2003 . OIL ON CANVAS . 110 X 120 CM

Everyday Heroism

Constancy in Jean-Rémy Papleux’s work leads to various trajectories that are to be followed.First, there is an onward come and go between photography, painting and drawing.Postures remain the same. Teenage or young female attitudes and gazes call out to the viewer – including some sort of distress. Here are the portraits of lonely characters standing on an (almost) empty stage – but full of light. Within the same momentum lies his video work, whose slow motion and light saturation convey a series of moving portraits, inevitably calling for music. The range becomes wide. The concern is deep. The risk is permanent. Lights and harmonies are gathered for a tragic joust.

Who are these young characters, models and teenagers looking for their fate? « I ask my relatives to become my models. They are friends or acquaintances. », Jean-Rémy Papleux says. The search is more philosophical than psychological. It is more metaphysical than narrative. It goes far beyond a series of personal accounts and individual suffering so as to strongly shout at us about a certain form of everyday heroism. This is the one of young people facing their fate – to say, the fleeing fate, or rather the everyday tragedy questioning the most essential issues of life (God, future, separation, termination) through the revealed figure, without being blurred by contemporary stereotypes. It reminds us of Zarathoustra calling for his peers – the human beings of the present time: “Sincerely, you could not wear better masks than your own faces…”

« My painting involves the constraints of formal criteria, such as light for instance. », Jean-Rémy Papleux states. It is interesting to notice that for the Ancient Geek tragic dramatists, the term « dîos » just means « divine », like a “Zeus’ attribute”. Then, it simply derives to its Judaeo-Christian meaning of “creator god”. But during the Homeric times, “dîos” initially means “bright, sparkling”, then “glorious”. When the adjective is added to the Homeric characters, it does not emphasize their divine aspect, but it highlights the brightness and the splendour that accompany them, towards whom they stand out. Here come Jean-Rémy Papleux’s characters, in the same way. They do not stand out within brightness or glory, but through cold light, undistinguished sky and light abyss. May they be happy, or unhappy, his solitary characters appear like standards assorted with intricate necessity. They please themselves with the splendour of everyday heroism.

Christian Globensky www.altermondialisation-equitable.com Artist Professor at L’École Supérieure d’Arts de Metz Author of Zarathoustra-Bouddha, vers un lexique commun, Paris, L’Harmattan, 2004.

“Aurélie”2003 . OIL ON CANVAS . 115 X 125 CM

“Laetitia”2003 . OIL ON CANVAS . 115 X 125 CM

“A shared desire”2008 . DV . 6’17’’

Real time story of a disappointment in love. The film features the author, his girlfriend, and a girl he met in the street.

The tight framing of the images in a stream of movement is as a visual symphony, and explores the tension from the meeting of the two girls, how a dramatic scope rises.

Through the pace of the staging and the plurality of narrative points of view, the movie seeks to describe a reality mode of perception, and especially his affective nature.

movie viewable at jeanremypapleux.com/en/

Horizon of Expectation

Jean-Rémy Papleux’s work falls within the classical history of the model in painting. Frontality, the female models, his light approach and his choice of monochromatic backgrounds are like primary horizons for the suggested aesthetical experience.

Regarding the outlines and the light treatment, the classical references in painting are immediately conveyed.From the well-known L. Da Vinci’s Sfumato to the equally famous G. Richter’s paintings, the treatment of characters and shapes belongs to the henceforth-classical history of the figure between the fixed image and the moving one.

Nevertheless, it is interesting to note that all its variations and corrections have a modifying impact on the genre and thus propose new boundaries. Jean-Rémy Papleux does not settle for being a painter in a classical way. He works with contemporary tools, offering the figure some perspectives of existence out of the frame.

The videos displayed on the monitors are like frames in the light of those that are painted on chassis. The characters from the pictures embody links to a universe that has already been lived. They are like stills and figures taken from the hurry of the present time. Each composition shows the figure through the triple horizon of experiences (1).

Phenomenological time and the intimate awareness of time are revealed through the painted image as photographic or videographic sequences. It leads to the development of one pictorial terminology centred on our perception of time. Every outline seems to become an emblem to that soul distension between the present and the past (memory), the present and the present (attention), the present and the future (expectations) (2).

The figure is the central topic in the paintings: it is both a psychological topic and an indicator of our reality – every work is entitled with the model’s name -, but it is mostly an indicator of our relationship to time, which is a metaphysical issue.

Jean-Rémy Papleux questions the status of the picture with a different approach as concerns painting. Every image carries out a new horizon. The silhouette over an almost neutral background provides some particular connection with the present, both universal and unique. Through its relation to our contemporary horizon, his painting turns out to be both an attention to time and a time for attention.

Cécile Marie

Cécile Marie is an art critic and a member of AICA.As an exhibition curator, she presented Jean-Rémy Papleux’s work for the first time in Paris in 2004 at the “Sur le Front” exhibition, along with artworks by Marc Chevalier, Mounir Fatmi, Luc Léotoing, Florent Mattei, Audrey Nervy, Eric Tabucchi, Cédric Teisseire, etc.

(Footnotes) (1): Husserl, Idées directrices pour une phénoménologie, § 82, ed. Gallimard, coll. Tel, traduction Paul Ricoeur, p. 277-282 (2): Saint Augustin, Les confessions, livre XI.

“Melena chole”2003 . COLOR PHOTO ON ALUMINIUM . 100 X 150 AND 100 X 150 CM

“(…) Jean-Rémy Papleux applies photo/painting procedure to portrait : a figure is stopped in its movement and expression through an instant cold paint. Hyperrealism is not far, reference increasingly present. (…)”

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