These balloon invasions by Charles Pétillon are metaphors. Their goal is to change the way in which we see the things we live alongside each day without really noticing them. It is our way of looking at things that I am trying to transform and revive, and therefore make it possible to go beyond practical perception to aesthetic experience: a visual emotion.
Each balloon has its own dimensions and yet is part of a giant but fragile composition. This fragility is represented by contrasting mate- rials and also the whiteness of the balloons. All details of these installations will eventually disappear becoming nothing more than a simple form.
When Charles Pétillon enters into the forest, a place full of dreams and a picturesque enclosure filled with stories and magic, the presence of balloons introduces a style of writing coming from a world in mutation. This natural space bears the scars of its heritage and ambition just like humans do.
Strange and disturbing, these white clouds evolve, transforming them- selves and attempting to bury in the abyss, the latent crystallised violence from an everyday life fallen prey to decisions made by humans. Without colour and artifice, these balloons bear witness to the voracity, sometimes anecdotal, and often toxic, of being human. Finally, the photographer pre- sents us with an archipelago of simple but terrifying situations.
The profound memories of childhood, games and naivety are conjured up in Souvenirs de famille (Family memories). Beneath the features of the family sanctuary, we reflect on the role of memory as a symptom of transmission, with which the burden of tradition and emotional ties form by their symbolic force, a challenge on collective memory
Spaces for play are discussed in Playstation, which alludes to the development of public play areas. From slides to football pitches or the bedroom symbolised by the games console, the occasionally cathartic use and obsessive and sometimes harmful hold of these games on humans is questioned here.
CO2 expresses one of the illusions of our times. Is it not the case that we seek to acquire more and more in order to be content with our image? The car is an object of desire that only reflects our need to have power over others and ourselves. Yet it is difficult to do without it as its use had become essential. This image is a metaphor for the excess of the individual in collective daily life, mirroring the scars it has left on the world.
