YOUNG EUROPEAN ARTISTS

Born in 1991, Pierre Demin is an artist who graduated from the DNSEP at the Nantes Saint-Nazaire School of Fine Arts in 2018. He has developed an artistic practice that combines imagination, instinct, and raw materiality.

His works are born at the frontier between reality and intuition, seeking to give form to what remains unspeakable and formless.

He says: "Ever since I was very young, I have always drawn monsters. As far back as I can remember, they were the main subject of most of my drawings. Present in all cultures, their ever-changing form paradoxically does not prevent them from being a universal figure, giving substance to the fears and misunderstandings that trouble humanity. In the same way that the ritual of mimicking the devil's horns with your hand is meant to protect you from bad luck, the representation of monstrosity is a way of warding off what frightens us. Sometimes drawn from reality, sometimes from dreams or intuitions, the forms I materialize evoke what for me remains unspeakable and formless. The animality, forests, and jungles that are omnipresent in my practice echo the work produced by the unconscious, generating simple forms that symbolize complex, untamed, wild thought. The very thought that seems to me to have animated humanity since the dawn of time. The masses of papier-mâché spilled onto the floor take on the appearance of a crocodile emerging from concrete, or a horse trapped in a plaster casing. These organic drawings and sculptures respond to installations composed of minimal structures, stripped of the elements that made them functional but retaining the standard dimensions of structures such as a trampoline or a swing, of which only the skeleton remains. The pieces respond to each other in a dialogue that is open to free interpretation. Certain forms have become recurrent, although the mediums I use vary with each project, and over time, some have taken on a special significance. The exclusive use of poor materials characterizes my work. Very often producing from recycled materials, sometimes borrowed from the construction industry, or using techniques related to construction, or even papier-mâché, commonly seen as an “amateur” practice, the materials are transformed, taking on the appearance of bone, rock, mud, or marble. The pieces almost construct themselves in a process of destruction/repair, generated by the anxiety of the imminence of collapse or catastrophe. Thus, the action of the elements, gravity, fire, erasure, or even putrefaction contribute to the constitution of the work. The urgency to act manifests itself in my practice through the urgency to create impulsively, in fairly short production phases. This spontaneous practice, an expression of immediate feelings, serves as an outlet, a way of questioning that sense of absurdity that has puzzled many artists over the centuries. And so, by depicting my monsters, I draw on the chaos to find the strength to tame it