“Signs give you information about something – a warning, an instruction.
And sometimes they don’t.”
Yannick Martin
The French visual artist Yannick Martin arrives in Sofia, Bulgaria by invitation of Visionary Foundation to create a series of art works for a solo show at INTRO Gallery this June, part of Visionary art program for 2022.
The exhibition presents the visual work of Yannick Martin, made up of signs, symbols and structures that take the form of enigmatic and playful alphabets.
The installation SIGNS OFFF states itself as a visual enigma (referring to signs of & signs off). It invites us to decipher the mysterious inscriptions left everywhere and at all times, soliciting our understanding of these languages composed of lines or marks, comparable to hieroglyphs or some kind of signs. More broadly, it proposes to take a step back, to question our certainties again, and to take time.
The two sculptures (“MAN WITH NO TIME” & “SUN THROUGH THE GATE”) poetically refer to the idea of time. The remaining pieces of these two constructions (“PIECES”) are linked to the traces and inscriptions explored in “VARIATIONS”. Bringing them together gives them a new spatiality, recalling the gesture.
“VARIATIONS” is a compilation of 5 serigraphs that trace the evolution of Martin’s visual language over the past 3 years. This language initially stems from the study of the potential of representation allowed by the cube, then by the grid, until it is liberated. These works combine geometric and minimal signs, sometimes pictographic, often abstract, and imaginary.
“5×5” is a series of silkscreens based on 5 elements superimposed in various ways, which explore the possibilities of arrangement, creating strange and immersive spatial variants similar to paths or orientations.
Yannick Martin`s art sometimes resorts to the drawing of grids that allow the exploration of infinite variation of signs or structures. When these grids are removed, the lines and arrangements produced are then freely articulated in space to find their placement and abstraction. An invitation is made to decipher or simply interpret the hieroglyphic and imaginary structures produced.
Through these compositions with a refined, mysterious, and pictographic language, Yannick proposes to revive a primary vocabulary made of inscriptions, marks, symbols, and initiates an interaction with multiple interpretations.
Photographer: Mihaela Draganova
Producer: Visionary
Visual artist: Yannick Martin
National Culture Fund
The project is part of Visionary – art program 2022 and is organized with the financial support of the National Cultural Fund and the Singer-Zahariev Foundation.
Partners: Zalag Darise, Bogodome, Sito Studio
