Gilles Barbier

Gilles Barbier co-founded Astérides in 1992, with Claire Maugeais, Jean-Christophe Nourisson and Sandrine Raquin. He had a studio at Astérides until the merger with Triangle France in 2017. Today, he is a permanent resident of the cooperative La Friche La Belle de Mai. 

Gilles Barbier was born in 1965 in Vanuatu, he lives and works in Marseille (FR)

Prolific and inventive, Gilles Barbier’s work is characterized by the wide diversity of its forms (photography, video, painting, sculpture, drawing), the variety of sources and references it draws from (science fiction, comic books, cinema, philosophy…), and the correspondences that run through it, reflecting the artist’s obsessions.

At the heart of his concerns lies a refusal of any pre-established program: he avoids imposing a point of view or any authority on the viewer, aiming instead to show that human choices — those of the artist included — can be unstable and incoherent, capable of following multiple, simultaneous trajectories of thought and action, thus forming a resistance to all forms of social or political pressure. Paradoxically, from the very beginning of his practice, he began copying the pages of a dictionary — the 1966 edition of Le Petit Larousse illustré — reproducing the illustrations in gouache and the words in pen. A lifelong undertaking, this ongoing, encyclopedic work has punctuated his artistic journey — and his life — for the past 37 years.

These shifting facets are embodied by the “pawn-clones”: miniature and multiple representations of the artist himself, they depict both an undifferentiated individual (a genetically identical copy) and endlessly replicable childlike versions of man. These figures oscillate between mischievous humor and deep seriousness — a hallmark of this abundant and intricate body of work. The innumerable clones, echoing a world in constant upheaval, resonate with Luke Rhinehart’s novel The Dice Man — a key reference in Barbier’s creative process. A radical fragmentation of the image, diametrically opposed to traditional portraiture, the pawn-clones compose a version of the artist who might at any moment rebel or resist a single, polished identity — ready to crack any mold into which he might be forced.
Galerie Vallois

Gilles Barbier’s work is on display during the exhibitions Art et bande dessinée, 2000 and Trabendo, 2003.