Présences

What we see is also evidence of a secret. The hypothesis of an invisible presence becomes compelling when we look at the walls that form Adrien Boyer’s second photographic opus. But, unusually, it is less what is behind the wall than what is openly offered to our view that constitutes an enigma.

In a small illustrated glossary titled Les mots et les images* (Words and images), Magritte drew a brick wall with the caption: “An object suggests that there are others behind it.” The metaphor only works on a physical plane: “behind” also means that another sense is possible than the one that we assign to things and images. With Adrien Boyer reality is a negative that must be reversed by means of photography. The revelation, in the chemical sense of the term, transforms the negative fact –“ceci n’est pas” – into a positive image that did not exist before.

Excerpt from Michel Poivert’s text