Affaissement > Simon Augade, 2019

Between two banks of the Étang de Clermont, a pale coloured column, of unstable appearance, is retained by a tangle of scorched wooden supports. Affaissement, the work of visual artist Simon Augade, symbolizes duality, the in-between. Since antiquity, the column has been an architectural symbol of power and stability, supporting temples and palaces. Here, the column, supported by a tangle of scorched supports, which can be likened to scaffolding, loses its monumentality and poses questions. Faced with this installation neither fallen nor upright, neither column nor beam, the viewer can only wonder if this artificial element, placed between two shores, is either a structural deficiency or an attempt to elevate it. Playing with this transitionnal state, the visual artist develops an analogy of the landscape of the Hortillonnages, this territory between land and water, between nature and culture, subjected to instability due to the fragility of the banks.