What is this

The Mush-Room

revanche against amnesia

Gelatinium was born
of an accident in 1990

Unpredictable organic forms

A Polaroid negative that had fallen to the ground in a damp cellar began to mutate. A few months later, when I discovered it by chance, I noticed with surprise that the joint action of time and mold had transformed the chemistry still present on the medium. The result: unpredictable organic forms which, once revealed and enlarged in the darkness of my laboratory, offered surprising details, sometimes of striking beauty.

Between chance and time

Since then, I have chosen to cultivate this phenomenon in an artistic approach, as one cultivates a mystery. Certain negatives—coming from “non-choices” during commissions or productions—were buried in porous boxes, or abandoned to the humidity of cellars. After long years of sleep, and a patient drying process, the survivors of this decomposition offer unexpected renderings, which I reveal through very high definition scanning. Each image is the trace of an alchemy between chance and time.

Silent witnesses of patience

Shown as large-format prints, these surviving images are no longer simple photographs, but fragile organisms, oscillating between disappearance and persistence. Silent witnesses of patience, they carry within them the memory of the years that have passed and the discreet breath of time.