25 – Philippe Baudelocque
From June 2009 to December 2013, Philippe Baudelocque will produce 25 large drawings, most of which are animals in chalk, in a street in Paris in the third arrondissement and in the same place, 25 rue du Pont-aux-choux. This book is proof of that.
Format 17 x 24 cm / 296 color pages / Soft cover with flaps
Bilingual French – English [2015]
Paris, on the walls of a narrow street in the Marais. For 4 years, Philippe Baudelocque drew his cosmic animals there with chalk: 25 in total, at 25 rue du Pont-aux-choux. Philippe Baudelocque's work feeds on correspondences, resonances. His cosmic animals, despite their large size, are never imposing, overwhelming. Their contemplation awakens in us a strong and disturbing reminiscence: that of the time when the universe is cosmos: an ordered totality sufficient in itself. that of the time when wisdom is an imitation of the world. that of the time when imitation was the ultimate, ethical and aesthetic virtue. that of the time when cathedrals and cities seek to reflect the order of the world. Topography is essential to the work of Philippe Baudelocque. His desire to trace his works on walls dedicating them to the gradual erasure of time or to voluntary destruction is a fundamental element of his approach. it echoes this vanished ancient topography, which placed man at the center of the universe while considering him as a microcosm installed within the macrocosm; at a time when the ability to reflect the harmony of the world was man's primary quest. To imitate the beauty of the world one must make oneself its receptacle; such as these walls which receive the works of Philippe Baudeloque; such as their strength and their energy which in turn pass through the artist and nourish his work.
The force, the energy of love orders the cosmos made up of concentric spheres. these spheres are endowed with souls; these souls are moved by love. before being relegated to a simple passion of the soul, love has long been the ultimate motor of the cosmos. The cosmological revolution of the 17th century decentered the earth, quartered the universe to infinity, erased the distinction between the terrestrial world and the celestial world, depriving us of any possible topography. Philippe Baudelocque's animals send us back to that time when we had not had the painful experience of an indifferent universe. Their cartography is soothing, it imitates the order of the constellations, its agreement, its beauty, its perfect balance. Fleeting, the cosmic animals of Philippe Baudelocque invite us to question our modern conception of the world.