December 3 to January 14, Magda Danysz welcomes for the first time in Paris, Charles Pétillon presenting his poetic photographs around an immersive installation designed exclusively for the gallery. After making a huge buzz in London late 2015 with a floating installation of over 100,000 balloons in Covent Garden, the photographer invades the Magda Danysz Gallery by offering us a new perspective on its space.
Heir to the Land Art artists or photographers like Georges Rousse, Charles Pétillon takes possession of the places he photographs by creating incredible balloons installations. An immaculate and highly symbolical white emerges from his installations. According to Petillon, white is "neither rich nor poor and evokes rest and a form of peace." His balloons compositions, entitled "Invasions", aim at changing our perspective on what we see every day without even looking at it. The balloon is what we do not say, those we do not see, these untold or forgotten memories ... Baloons are universal objects, simple and accessible. They allows the artist to materialize his ideas and thoughts with in a very poetic way.
Charles Pétillon's Invasions take over places around the world ranging from Calais and Dover beaches to the streets of Shanghai or to the black slopes of Mount Etna in Sicily. His white clouds highlight environments. Charles Pétillon addresses the disappearance of our part of our world, evokes memories and questions the human footprint over nature.
Each time Charles Pétillon does an outdoor installation, it is the idea of the final photograph that triggers the installation. He creates a unique relationship between the ephemeral aspect of the installation and the photograph, which is the only testimony of something that does not exist anymore.
In the show at the gallery, besides these photographs, Charles Pétillon presents a new installation designed specifically for the space. Looking like an artificial forest, a dense arrangement of balloons allows us to experience the space in a different and immersvie way, even transforming our perception from sight to hearing.
