The term faux plat refers to terrain that appears flat but in reality possesses a subtle incline. Here, it describes the ambiguous relationship to volume and space shared by a selection of paintings, reliefs, and photographs from a private Parisian collection, created by artists of diverse geographic backgrounds.
From one work to the next, form remains elusive: it emerges or recedes, protrudes or hollows, reflects, traps, or transforms ambient light. It is woven from various imaginary registers and plays with the flatness and strict frontality of modernist abstraction. The nature of these objects—polysemic and shifting—disrupts our perceptual habits and expectations.
Projected into the abstract space of the works, our gaze traverses visual paths subtly paced by these faux plats. They seem to echo and deviate from Claude Parent’s thinking, inviting us to an unusual visual exercise—one that, like the architect’s “oblique function,” releases not muscular but visual energy.