Florence Doléac

The green giant

2006

Installation for the piece “Epître” d’Olivier Py: Florence Doléac & François Curlet.

Château-gontier

Patapouf

2005

Structure in waisted metal paints epoxy, bag raincoat, washable cover, balls of polystyrene

This installation is made up of a scene devised by François Curlet and surrounded by 30 “Patapouf” seats created by Florence Doléac (Fermob edition), the model for which was specially produced for the show. Patapouf is a seat consisting of a metal structure and a freely placed bag; the whole thing can tip over on the floor, thus inviting people to wallow, and let themselves go. Here, the bag, akin to a sack of potatoes, links up with the starched world of the green giant complemented by its pop corn pot, like an on-going intermission. Wallowing at the foot of a mannequin is also a literal way of watching it becoming gigantic.Lying on the ground to look at the installation is a way of being part and parcel of it, and being an actor and extra in it. This gentle and regressive proposition leads to a form of contemplation and reflection about the meaning of the character of the green giant in his décor.

Florence Doléac sets her work in an interstitial space where design hobnobs with art, and where presentation and production methods waver between a system that is both commercial and institutional. The fact that she lays claim to this not very common stance endows her with a specific identity. The fact is that not only does Florence Doléac introduce a tension between production and exhibition, with answers that brim with wit and poetry, but she also develops a line of questioning about function and its contrasting counterpart: uselessness. Her proposals and ideas sidestep established codes in order to upset the way we usually perceive things; she intercepts our gestures by putting a finger on their limits. The incongruousness of the various situations thus created refers us to our own imagination, thus lightening a reality that is far too straitjacketed.