Series “Garden of Breaths”

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Series of small- and medium-format drawings (ranging from 30 × 30 cm to 50 × 60 cm), executed in pencil and graphite on paper.

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By taking an interest in the book The Life of Plants: A Metaphysics of Mixture by philosopher Emanuele Coccia, Thierry Farcy encounters the author’s theory. Coccia argues that there is no tangible boundary between things: a tree is as much rooted in the earth as it is in the air. Human beings are immersed in the atmosphere just as much as they become its container through breathing. As a result, things are no longer perceived in a fragmentary way, but as an indivisible whole.

It is in this spirit that the artist observes a park combining a formal French garden (composed of topiary) and wild areas. He examines it as a whole, seeking through drawing to erase any sense of depth of field in order to render a surface that forms something like an organic tissue, akin to what might be studied under a microscope. There is no boundary between elements, but rather a modification of their state, thus creating different densities.

Although the subject is drawn from reality, its treatment and transformations lead us toward another reading.