John Deneuve

John Deneuve was born in 1976 in Annecy (FR), he lives and works in Marseille (FR)

THE CAVE MYTH
A cave.
A light.
A light projecting an image into the eyepiece of a microscope.
A man.
Pierre
Or maybe Paul
Inexorably drawn to the light
Unable to resist his curiosity
He approaches.
He looks.
The violent confrontation with the unexpected unsettles him.
Yet, bathed in this light, he perceives his own condition.
He will want to recount what he has seen to his peers, but they won’t believe him.

THE PRE-INTEGRATION COLORING PROGRAM
In France, there exists an administrative maelstrom.
It gives no respite to adults. It never ends.
The coloring pages offered to children in this installation allow them, from an early age, to befriend the institutions and the many administrative texts that govern our lives.
Through play, the child learns not to go beyond the boundaries of the coloring page and, later, within the society they will inhabit, they will not be tempted to defy the police or set cars on fire!
No, they will have internalized all the laws that govern a society—its boundaries and codes.
The child rediscovers the joy of learning.
Coloring fosters discernment and creativity.
It allows the child to take hold of their environment and opens the door to imagination and wonder.
On a social-emotional level, this coloring activity enables better socialization. It helps the child get to know themselves and develop autonomy.
The child will thus learn to handle their paperwork independently—and later, this will not be a source of anxiety.
This coloring respects the child as an individual, and fosters responsibility—where parents and teachers often find themselves powerless.
And we all know it: the child’s little brain at birth does not function on every level, as its size might suggest—it simply reacts (reflexively) to its environment.
The more stimulation the child receives from birth, the more their primitive reflexes activate, and the faster they will establish an effective network forming a normal nervous system.
Let’s act for tomorrow, starting today.

John Deneuve’s work in on display during the exhibition John Deneuve, Gilles Desplanques, Marie Grégoire, Chloé Dugit-Gros, Justin Sanchez, 2008.