Sébastien Cliche: Accidents de la vie courante

Exhibition

August 21 – September 27, 2003

Project Description

Our physical environment, and even our most immediate surroundings, are often at the very root of the anxiety we feel about our security. At least, this is what we are led to believe when we consider the warning labels on different products, advertisements for insurance companies, safety fold-outs and graphics found on public transport. The omnipresence of these warnings and the daily media coverage of disasters of different magnitudes have us feeling that danger lurks behind every corner.

For a few years now, Sébastien Cliche has been questioning the notion of this constant harassment to our well-being. Whereas his previous projects were more concerned with specific situations like travelling by plane, surviving in the forest and domestic life, the work he is presenting in Skol’s large gallery shifts from an external view to a more internal, psychological representation of his characters. The feelings regarding this harassment shifts from an external interpretation towards an internalized sensation, and all at once, it is the personal fantasizing regarding these feelings that is now in the foreground. Using photography, drawing, painting and text, Cliche plunges us into a poetic world where we are surrounded by a general feeling of different potential dangers, without being quite able to pinpoint what they are. Within this space, we wonder if it really isn’t ourselves waiting for disaster to happen at any moment.