2010 – 2024.

Gilles Barbier is continuing the series. Pawns whose number increases considerably (from a few dozen to over thirty). This series is amplified by the reintroduction of the Game of Life at the Centre Georges Pompidou. Then, a few years later, with the evolving Checkers installation. The technique was evolving, and the transition from wax to resin posed a number of problems, particularly when it came to coloring the objects. To recapture the light and chromatic depth of wax, the artist turned to glazing with oil paint. While this new method is time-consuming and requires a great deal of expertise, it opens up a wide range of possibilities. This new mastery led to the creation of numerous series: Cosmogonies, Inhabiting,  Stasis… The Superheroes family is completed with A Very Old Thing. The Black Drawings – which play an important role in Gilles Barbier’s body of work in gouache on paper – are brought to fruition in the large-scale installation the Black Box. Conceived as a recorder that retains the memory of 25 years at the heart of the Barbier “system”, the Black Box is made up of 4 revolving turnstiles, each of which carries 24 drawings in its wake. The different but matched speeds of rotation enable the device to deliver a host of different combinations of hangings during its cycles. These multiplicities remind us that memory is not a fixed block, but a metamorphic material in constant evolution.