Molécule Eden

violet7mag
Nov 14, 2014
2 min read

Molécule Eden

Nicolas Darrot

By: Marina Buston

Location: Galerie Eva Hober / 35 rue Chapon

End Date: Nov 22

A menacing little bear stands atop a black pedestal, and there is a mountain backlit by a brown sky speckled with perfect yellow stars. This gallery is the November cold that is currently setting in on Paris. It is the earth, and it is a fantastical force that allows the absurdity of nature to seep through the cracks of reality a bit. I fell in love with the calmness of it, and the richness. Nicolas Darrot’s mind is a beautiful and grounding place to spend a cloudy afternoon. He works with metals and motion sensors and I walked through the gallery in wonderment, studying each piece for its complexity and familiarity. The stroll down Rue Chapon to get to the collection is strangely similar to the work found in the gallery. The Thursday afternoon I went was grey and still, and there weren’t many people walking around the streets. It was one of those rare moments in which I had Paris practically all to myself.

In many of the galleries I attended during my trek through the city, I found a jarring hum of fluorescent lights, or an uneasy stillness. The art couldn’t breathe, no matter how beautiful it was. In Galerie Eva Hober I found the white lights and concrete floors to be comforting and appropriate for the collection. The pieces looked at home paired with the bare-bones aesthetic of the space, electrical outlets and all! The collection was an escape from the bustling streets of Paris, and my nagging to-do list. It reminded me of life on a molecular level; the mountains seen on the horizon in my home town are made of the same stuff as me, and this spilling city of Haussman architecture and manicured gardens, just the same as Nicolas Darrot’s Argentière (mountain sculpture) is made of the same stuff as pigeons and cigarettes and home-cooked meals.