Cheese.

Cheese plays an important role in Gilles Barbier’s work. When asked by Gaël Charbau (*), he replies:

This world of holes, balanced on a dynamic of desires and anxieties, openings and closures, I try to give it a body, to restore the simple images we need to make it our own. This is the meaning of a work like Aaaaah! a body that opens up to liberate its inner self. It’s the work that burrows and worms do; digging galleries to circulate air in caves and vaults. These are the white bubbles from which the text flows in my black drawings. Then there’s cheese, and Emmental in particular. For beyond its famous holes and the play on words that gives this pastry a cerebral side, cheese is the star product if we’re talking about those other passages that are changes of state. The transition from the liquid state of milk to rennet, then on to an impressive number of other states; from soft to hard, from wet to dry, from full to perforated, from fresh to aged… Cheese shows us the path of metamorphosis, and I’m very sensitive to it. With holes in the story, we can sketch out other versions. With gaps in memory, you can rewrite your life.