20 March - 30 April 2003

After his performance at the Hotel Cardin and his exhibition, "The Peluches of Dr Urman", the artist continues to explore his vision of eternity and the marvels of nature, through a process of regression.

Introduction

A dark red peluche (soft toy) of a woman (latex and fake fur), lies on a plinth made of the same material, her legs slightly apart, as though giving birth or about to make love. She personifies the Mother Nature who brings life to our world.

Around her hang photographs, visible beneath thick layers of frosted Altuglas.

Our subjects: material from the animal and vegetable world (fish, insects, plants, flowers) and historical events. They are taken from encyclopedias, cut out and photographed against a white background, before being enclosed in Altuglas.

"Marvellous mother nature", a peluche

The peluche represents an athletic woman, reminiscent of monumental sculpture from the 30s or 40s.

Olivier Urman sees such sculpture as poupées de pierre, stone dolls engendered and encouraged by a society looking for comfort. These idols are accepted representations, deliberately simplistic, of humanity. Despite their supposedly hard-wearing character, these monuments will end up worn down, lost or forgotten.

The giant peluche, "Marvellous Mother Nature", aims to be more durable than stone, since by drawing on our past it presents an image of eternity.

It evokes the origin of the world through a symbolic representation typical of traditional classical imagery. Were it made of stone, it would be just another sublimation of adulthood triumphant, glorifying our society - think of all those allegories of Electricity, Harvest, and Science. But the use of a peluche, a soft toy, changes everything, putting the adult in a child's world, where concepts such as the future, ambition, aging and fulfilment all cease to exist. The sculpture puts man in a world without time, but with an infinite view of the future.

This Mother Nature opens the door and pulls us in, deceiving us with her kindly appearance, putting us off our guard. She's our guide, an interface between us and the rest of the world. The world she creates is made up of simple, identifiable elements: animals, plants and objects, and scenes from the history of mankind.

The 24 Images

Olivier Urman takes his subject-matter from old encyclopedias, books which gather and classify a knowledge that is both universal and allegorical, synthesising images of work, war and scientific progress.

These subliminal images surround our Marvellous Mother Nature. They evoke the state of the child-entomologist, for whom things have still only a spontaneous, absolute value, and who knows nothing of the aging process. He does not yet understand their role in society or nature. He sees differently from the adult: he individualises his environment, and when he sees a fly, a discourse begins - the fly challenges his innocence. As the child observes it, he observes himself and asks: "Am I a fly? Why can't I fly? Is this fly friendly, and what does it want?"

Time

Urman captures these images in black and white, like something out of a dream, a world devoid of nature's colour. In the encyclopedias, the historical illustrations are fixed, classified, but often obsolete, the opposite of reality, which is colourful and constantly moving. These images come stripped of all cultural connotations.

He adds haloes to his manipulated photographs, an aura which isolates and intensifies the subject matter. The images seem artificial: the subjects, taken from their context and placed on a plain background, are observed in heroic isolation.

Urman encases his images in frosted Altuglas boxes, rendering the image physically inaccessible. In this way his photography is not representation, but evocation.

Conclusion

Unlike the normal human constructions made of marble, glass or bronze, the materials used by Urman in this struggle with time are either soft or intangible, created as they are by our unconscience.

The Marvellous Mother Nature is our guide in a fascinating world where the effects of time soften and disappear - eternity has taken over. The peluche draws our attention to photographs of objects so simple that we seem to be looking at them afresh, without fear, judgement or reason. We are swept away with a sensation of invulnerability: we become untouchable observers, in a state of childlike fascination which protects us.

Read an article on the exhibition from the Parisian newspaper Liberation (18 April 2003)