Chrysalide Chérie

Conceived as an eco-system, the exhibition of Benjamin Bichard at the Gallery Géraldine Banier refers to mimicry, this strategy of defense appropriated by some animals species. It involves three actors : the mimicked, the imitator and the fooled.
As an act of protection, Benjamin Bichard develops this strategy of co-evolution with simple, everyday objects. They are inhabited with the artist nostalgia of what disappears, and take with his repetitive act a new form that questions the standards of Art History.
In Benjamin Bichard’s mind there is a multitude of forgotten objects by the world, that he tries to keep the track.
Looking closely at the artist’s sculptures, this hypnotic and cristallin chandelier, this flowing fountain erected in the middle of the gallery, the camouflage comes to light : objects.
Useful and raw objects, the ones we don’t see anymore because we use them everyday. These little actors of our life, which doesn’t have a priori any intrinsic beauty, reveals themselves in the artist’s sculptures.
The chandelier is made of plastic knives, the fountain of synthetic sponges, the lifeline of ice-cream spoons, the lace of construction holds for concrete...
The visual decoy is efficient and forces the spectator to look down on these objects that inhabit his everyday life.
Stemming of the mass production, they remind us of the seriality’s strength but also the time that passes, the fragility of life and the precious banality of the accumulation of the days. For the artist «they are the most intimate witnesses of our life acts.» The peels of pencils covering the bench, remind us of childhood moments, the odor and noise of the pencil sharpener and the thousand of times we threw away these abstract lovely flowers that we produced without noticing them.
Coming in Benjamin Bichard’s universe, it’s like coming back at home, restore lost moments, and feel the absence of what disappears with time. Like the chrysalid that creates the butterfly and disappears, we even forget the caterpillar that preceded, and nevertheless it’s from there that all comes.
With monomania, he accumulates the «throwable» things and erects them as chapel, returning grace to the most insignificant and ephemeral gestures of our everyday life.