The insatiable intellectual curiosity pushes Bernard Moninot to be interested in multiple physical phenomena. From these scientific singularities, the artist extracts all the subtle poetry.    He creates abstract works often based on a fictitious function which would have no other use than to reveal an invisible beauty: a dew catcher, the traces of an anemograph, a bird’s flight or the movement of the stars.

The exhibition takes its name from the space installation Ensecrètement (2018-2019). It is a spectacular narrative device consisting of four steel and artificial silk frames forming a transparent chamber in which a set of suspended elements are illuminated and activated by a mechanism. At the heart of the chamber is a phrase borrowed from the philosopher Jean-Luc Nancy, « The strange memory of that which has never been deposited in a memory ». The sentence turns on itself like a prayer wheel and the light projects multiple reflections on the silk room and beyond.

This work is a sequel to the installation Chambre d’écho (2012-2017) exhibited at the Jean Fournier gallery during the eponymous exhibition in 2018.   This new work uses a process of synesthetic creation – a neurological phenomenon in which several senses are associated – often evoked by Bernard Moninot, produced by the reminiscence of visionary moments generated by the sound frequencies of the A of a tuning fork resonating in contact with objects.

Ensecrètement is undoubtedly the most autobiographical work produced by the artist.

The second major work in the exhibition is the sculpture DewPoint (2019), designed to be a fictional device for collecting dewdrops.

« In creation, the birth of an idea is comparable to the natural process, where certain atmospheric conditions are necessary for the formation of the dew phenomenon.  The organic forms of Dewdrop can be found in the series of drawings Dewdrop Edge, made up of Indian ink washes, mica collage and gold threads; and in the series Avalanche Foreboding (2019), a work composed of two planes: an artificial silk canvas through which one can see transparent sections of mountains or glaciers painted in acrylic.
The exhibition also unveils three other recent series of drawings, a series of paintings and a series of editions that testify to Bernard Moninot’s extreme intellectual agility and constant curiosity.

Sketches, note-taking, plastic research or simple daydreams, these series are both the source and the traces of his creation.

Will be exhibited in particular Mémoire du vent TOME 2 (published in 1999-2019) thirty drawings recording the effects of air movement; Pierres retournés (2019) which is inspired by the hidden part of the stones that is never in contact with air or light, or Migrateur partiel (2019), a celestial cartography drawn with a bird’s feather, inspired by the seasonal migration of birds that orient their movements with the position of the stars.

« Bernard Moninot’s work fits none of the major categories. While it uses pigment, it does not emerge as painting; while it occupies space, it does not invite perception as sculpture; and last of all it is not really what is understood by installation. The most accurate description would be that it is a kind of drawing – but extended drawing (in Novalis’s sense of ‘extended poetry’). »

The works making up Antichambre (Anteroom) take their inspiration from a drawing in space, a « sculpture of silence » dating from 2011. This three-dimensional grouping of circular two-way mirrors was set in motion by an electric motor and projected light and shadows on the walls. The different-sized circles provided a sonogram of the word « silence ».

The pictures making up the series are stills from an image of this work in rotation, and comprise two planes set into a frame, forming a box whose ground is painted. In the foreground tinted silk acts as a screen. The primary concern of the series is colour.

The series of drawings À la poursuite des nuages (In Pursuit of Clouds) was made in the artist’s studio in Château-Chalon. At 500 metres above sea level, the studio enjoys a panoramic view of the sky and the surrounding landscape. As if drawing a performance, or writing, the artist observes the clouds and in a left-to-right movement transposes their progress onto paper as the wind elongates them. Each fresh look corresponds to a move to the next line on the paper. The passing of time is indicated by the minutes noted at the beginning of each new line.

The last series, Terminal, was begun in 2013. Here three large works are accompanied by medium-size ones. These are pictures of airport boarding lounges – those in-between, time-killing spaces – and are a tribute to El Lissitzky, the Russian Constructivist. Made up of two layers of silk a few centimetres apart, they use linear interplay and primary colour transparency to generate a feeling of movement. Another result, as in the Antichambre series, is optical fusion of colours.

« Drawing is the characteristic aspect of my work. Since the 1980s I’ve moved away somewhat from traditional ideas of gestural marks or imprints on paper, towards hitherto untried media. This in turn has led me to explore natural phenomena, sound waves, resonances, shadows, light, etc. »