Through this dense scene
traversed by luminous halos, Vhils transforms the interior of a metro carriage
into a space of fragile coexistence. The figures appear caught in a slowed
temporality, almost motionless despite the implicit movement of transport. The
expressions remain restrained, absent or meditative, revealing this paradoxical
experience of a collective composed of profoundly separated individualities.
The chemical process employed by the artist confers upon the image a vibrant
materiality: contours dissipate, surfaces appear altered by time, as though the
scene were rising up through several layers of memory. The dominant browns and
ambers absorb superfluous details to concentrate the gaze on the faces and on
the silent tensions that connect them. More than a representation of the
Parisian metro, the work becomes a reflection on the manner in which spaces of
transit shape a contemporary form of presence to the world, diffuse, transitory
and profoundly anonymous.