Sans titre 2, 2006

Vincent Mauger  

My artistic approach falls within an issue focused on the research of materialization and concrete realization of what could be a mental space. What I mean by «mental space» can be the construction of thoughts in front of a space or a place. It can also be the representation of virtual universes and schematical constructions, formulated for everyone to project himself in a place faraway or inexistent.

I often bring together a real space (exhibition space) and the mental representation of another space. Using ordinary construction material, I build landscape representations, sort of mental landscapes, which are very close to computer graphics or mathematical and diagrammatical imagery. I draw closer real construction techniques and scientific virtual imagery techniques. I am looking to create parallels and show similities between a concrete construction system and a reasoning.

With my creations i try to interrogate the ideas of architecture and urbanism, using construction material in order to formulate fragments of landscapes, playing with scales differences, inviting people to move, physically and mentally. It’s all about creating process, simple systems of construction, creations that comes from those systems. In my sculptures the assembly principle of the material always remains visible, so that the spectator can use it mentally, imagine the pursuit of the construction or think of a composition change.

My sculptures are made of simple materials : wood, fabric, tiles, plastic or metallic tubes, etc. Those material remain identifiable but the way I use them creates a strange gap with their ordinary appearance. Those sculptures constitute a start or a sketch that could be developed in space. For example in the inside of a building, I want the visitor to discover fragments of a landscape, which are in some way the initiation or the prolongation of a space, creating concrete mental images and an atmosphere favorable to the reflection.