Opening

Saturday November 26

17:00 – 19:00 hrs.

26/11 – 21/01

Painting is a matter of silence. Yet we persist in adding language to it, which is always a delicate operation. But the desire to write persists, highlighting the nature of the irresistible fascination it exerts on us. For Luc Tuymans, “images must – when they wish to achieve an effect – contain a terrible silence within them”. Paintings are silent things. They don’t tell us what to do,” adds Marlene Dumas. The works by Damien Cadio do not depart from this silence. Their poetic titles limit themselves to the realm of allusion, red herrings that divert us towards dark and troubled waters.

For Damien Cadio (1975, France) the border of the canvas is the rim of a lens, behind which is a world of momentum. Beyond lies a state of interplay, each painting becoming less of a still life than a scene within a more elaborate process, moving imperceptibly. He photographs his models from various angles before making a single mark. Therefore, the boundaries of the paintings serve to obscure, to disorient us in a scene beyond the frame, creating a tension between what is visible and the events surrounding that led to their creation. This shroud of mystery and perceived weightlessness creates an unnerving quiet, a sense of some untraceable threat. His images are caught between the gravities of the physical and historical, his modern methods and traditional painting.