Maxime Simon
Works
Simulacre series
In his Simulacre series (2021), Maxime Simon reinterprets ancient statuary. He creates new figures evoking animist fetishes. These Greek watercolor painted marbles are cut and sewn with yellow embroidery thread directly on azure backgrounds.
The mineral flesh is eaten away in places showing traces of time and natural elements that have come to caress them too often. A softness emanates from these portraits, evoking the cycle of life and nature, and the artificial character of these representations.
The floating of the works in their frame brings a certain depth. These immortal figures are mounted on pagan altars and brought back to life.
Sacre series
In his series Sacre (2021), Maxime Simon presents in a natural environment, figures evoking ancestral pagan myths. Done in watercolor and acrylic ink, the colors are vibrant and changing. The dense vegetal band gives us the scent of undergrowth which also characterizes the fragrance of Petrichor.
The ocher background echoes the color of the sky at the time of the storm, when the scent of Petrichor is also born in the atmosphere. Through a play of glances, the visitor feels himself observed by the figures that inhabit the works of Maxime Simon.
Le sacre du printemps series
petrichor, male name: Odor that emanates from the earth when it rains after a dry period. From ancient Greek petra ("stone") and / ikhor ("fluid, blood"), ichor denoting the blood of the gods in Greek mythology. "
Inspired by Pina Bausch's staging of The Rite of Spring, Maxime Simon's Petrichor triptych evokes this transformation. The bodies of these dancers successively embrace the tempos of recklessness, anger and appeasement. The sky above them accompanies them like a metronome.