Raphaël Lecoquierre’s “Tills” Exhibition: A Journey Through Time and Memory

The “Nūbēs” series is a unique exploration of memory and time. Lecoquierre uses a vast array of vernacular analogue photographs, images of families, landscapes, and other memory instruments, which he has collected over time. These images are then dissolved by oxidation to extract their colored substance. The resulting inks are incorporated into Venetian stucco and used as a fresco, a pictorial material.

The images documenting the world disappear and are renewed on the surface of compositions with a nebulous and marbled appearance, reminiscent of blocks of memories with blurry, undefined contours. The white hue of the Venetian stucco gives the works a cloudy appearance, echoing the Renaissance sfumato technique or nineteenth-century landscape paintings. The clouds here are summoned as romantic symbols, but they also mark the ephemeral character of life and the instability of the human condition. They equally refer to ‘clouds’, remote computer servers for saving and storing data.

The title “Tills” comes from a geological term referring to the debris of sedimentary rocks dragged and then abandoned by glaciers. The glacier here is used as a metaphorical representation of passing time, whose traces, left by its slow and imperceptible movement, are materialized by the paintings and sculptures in the exhibition. Their forms refer to the architecture of ancient civilizations, such as the pyramid or the Gothic warhead, but also to the field of the more recent, trivial construction industry, like the cylinder, the board, or a wall covering reminiscent of American minimalism.

A site-specific installation is displayed as a fresco on the walls and floor of Casino Luxembourg, accompanied by an original sound piece entitled “Still,” developed by the sound artist Lou Drago. “Still” is part of an ongoing series called “Suspending Time” and takes the form of a continuous drone whose sound seems repetitive, even static. Nevertheless, it evolves very slowly over the course of the exhibition, reminiscent of glaciers that move almost imperceptibly.

Visitors are invited to lie down to try to experience non-vertical time in music or, as Drago describes it, a suspension of time. This alternative mode of listening is akin to many meditation and mindfulness practices, which emphasize the importance of focusing on the present.

To mark the experience of time, the works in “Tills” will imperceptibly evolve and change their appearance throughout the duration of the exhibition. The reaction of the carbonation of the stucco transforming the lime into limestone will slightly reduce the intensity of the color of the works over a period of months. Simultaneously, Lou Drago’s sound piece will fade slightly and very gradually until the end of the exhibition.

The exhibition is curated by Kevin Muhlen and Stilbé Schroeder and is part of the European Month of Photography.