The Crisis of the copper age

‘As I paint on sheets of copper inside Enver Hoxha’s former villa, I keep asking myself what I, a Frenchman, is doing here. I grew up in a deaf family. Because sign language was banned in France for more than a century, communication in my family was shaped as much by invention as by absence. Images often travelled where words could not. Technologies that promised connection also became places onto which hope, fear and fantasy were projected. That experience has become the lens through which I encountered Albania.

Copper carries these stories. Extracted from the earth, it is one of humanity’s oldest materials. Soft enough to be engraved and conductive enough to carry electricity, voices and images across great distances, it has connected people for centuries while also serving the infrastructures of power. Today it becomes the surface on which I paint.

About Arthur Gillet
Arthur Gillet (born 1986) is a painter who creates objects. His work explores the ambivalent nature of language and identity, its fragility, the constraints of social norms and the resulting strategies of over-adaptation. These themes have been a constant presence in his life since childhood, spent with his deaf parents, who struggled with schizophrenia, in a social housing estate on the outskirts of Rennes. He grew up at a time when the information revolution was transforming modes of communication, amidst the advent of the internet and smartphones, and his father’s work in a factory manufacturing televisions and cameras.

For the artist, painting constitutes a space for communication, translation and self-determination. Drawing on practices of counterfeiting, disguise and ‘passing’ (whether in terms of gender, class or ableism), his approach engages with art history whilst simultaneously repositioning it through situated experiences. His work also draws on psychoanalysis, CODA (Children of Deaf Adults) studies and a political perspective rooted in his feminist, queer and social activism, echoing that of his mother within the Réveil Sourd.

In 2024, he presented a monumental fresco painted on silk, measuring twenty-five metres, at the Institut français Berlin, accompanied by a guided tour with commentary in sign language alongside his mother. His solo exhibition ‘CODA’ at Galerie S in Paris continued this exploration through his paintings on wood and was featured in Le Quotidien de l’Art. He is currently exhibiting at the Grand Palais as part of the exhibition dedicated to Hilma af Klint.

About La collective Greater Paris
Statement from the collective: We are a group with blurred boundaries. We are made up of humans and non-humans. We have known one another since time immemorial and, since 2024, we have been continuing the conversation through exhibitions. We have no legal identity and may change our name. We are an affinity group—in the sense understood by activist movements, particularly those fighting HIV and AIDS. We bring together, in solidarity, diverse practices, forms of resistance and ways of surviving within the artistic field.

About Patricia Falguières
Patricia Falguières was a professor at the École des hautes études en sciences sociales in Paris until 2024. Her work focused on Renaissance philosophy and art, and on Mannerism. She has published numerous essays, including ‘Les Chambres de merveilles’ (2002) and the French editions of ‘Le style rustique. L’emploi du moulage d’après nature chez Wenzel Jamnitzer et Bernard Palissy’ by Ernst Kris (2005) and ‘Les cabinets d’art et de merveilles de la renaissance tardive’ by Julius von Schlosser (2013). Her current research focuses on the regime of Technè in the Renaissance, the inclusion of artistic practices in the Aristotelian order of knowledge At the same time, she contributes regularly to the field of contemporary art through her articles, essays and critical editions; from 2006 to 2024, she co-led the seminar ‘Something You Should Know: Artists and Producers Today’ at the EHESS, alongside Elisabeth Lebovici and Natasa Petresin-Bachelez. She is a member of La Collective Greater Paris.