Sébastien de Ganay's art is above all about interactivity and participation. The artist wants to encourage the observer to conduct thought experiments about the objects entrusted to him. The artist confers a privilege to the role of the observer as a participant. The works are not made by hand, they are industrially produced; just like the starting material of his artistic reflections are industrially manufactured everyday objects. The artist likes to play with these products, not only in his mind; for example, he likes to fold post-it notes. In his new series of works Folded Flat that you can see here and that are exhibited for the first time in Austria, he transferred the initial paper foldings onto large-size rolled out and welded together aluminium plates. The observer is confronted with the foldings either quite clearly or in an obscured way because they face the wall. Thinking about the process of folding, a process inherent to the work, is the effect the artist wishes to achieve. Sébastien de Ganay shares the understanding of the sequence of gestures that have led to the creation of the work with the observer.

Inspired by the process of folding and unfolding that we all know, the works entitled CARTONS are also evidence of the creativity concealed in our most simple gestures, such as folding. Let's take a look at his suite of furniture: Sébastien de Ganay manufactured and developed his furniture sculptures, also from painted aluminium plates, based on a packaging carton that can be folded to form a box. They are first of all intended as items of as furniture. However, with their size exaggerated, as you can see in the garden of the gallery, they function more as a sculptures than as items of furniture.

He adds additional uses to some of the items by jazzing them up and turning them into a bookcase or a wine rack. While these works walk the line between design and art, his Folded Flat works of art that you can see here on the walls explore the borderline area between image and object. An interest in playing is the artist's main creative impulse.

sebastien de ganay