Matthieu Michaut
FEU AU LAC
12.FEB.2025
Fire at the lake
FEU AU LAC
12.FEB.2025
Fire at the lake
Another echo of writing, a few ink cartridges reworked into sequences; without words, without logos, like photographic snapshots of these same plants swept by the wind, movements captured for a moment on its horizon.
Writing tool.
Ink.
History.
The return or the memory of the house by the lake. Moments of writing, burning memories, ink stains, thermal paper. Folklore of the lake, festive places and incandescent elements, almost burning everything.
Perhaps it's worth pointing out that I know the artist well, and we work and exchange ideas in a close and joyful collaboration—for which I'd like to thank him warmly here. For this exhibition Feu au lac, Matthieu asked me to use the exhibition text to develop a fictional narrative inspired by the atmospheres suggested by the pieces.
A multiple has also been published for the occasion.
On the platform, old ads for bank cards. No cash dispensers. No escape. The afternoon is structured in transitory, painful segments. From one station to another, a train, rails line r, a bus, roadside then footpath. I move on, past a man pissing against a wall, an ATM, 20min newspaper, closed counters, draught. It stinks of filthy sap, public furniture sticks and on four or five roads are parked the same cars in colourful rows, whose sequence I know by heart. It's never the last time I go back home, I thought for a while I'd never have to go back, but it's always the same; the same deserted path or perhaps a man in the distance whose legs I can't see moving, also struggling. Under my soles, I beat out the rhythm and sand the ground, which has become more crumbly since the fire.
Press release from the department
of Seine et Marne
Following the fires, festivals and bonfires of June
zoho-zoha agglomeration
Environmental and social resources department fauna, flora and life
—
Following the excesses of the June festivities and the annual fireworks display, the public authorities have declared the area uninhabitable, in advance and in haste, due to the fire that has spread over the last few days. The area, which has been declared an Area of Urgent De-urbanisation of Habitats and Infrastructures since the new environmental standards resulting from the latest IPCC reports, becomes a No-Treatment Zone (NTZ) with effect from today. If living conditions were made extreme by the sudden aridity caused by the degradation of the region's biome —right down to the total recession of the lake, itself a former quarry that has become an appendage of the Seine— caused by the chain reactions of climatic disturbances, including the proliferation of plants hardy to these same conditions, resolutely hostile to cohabitation (impassable terrain, overpopulation of invasive plant species, air pollution and saturation, highly irritating particles,...), we are now obliged to ban all visitors to the region. The authorities and administrative structures have already been relocated—please follow the same migration dynamics by sector.
of Seine et Marne
Following the fires, festivals and bonfires of June
zoho-zoha agglomeration
Environmental and social resources department fauna, flora and life
—
The damage includes the entire area from the station to the cemetery, the large field and the water treatment plant.
Following the fire, the municipality is trying to complete the scenario of events that has put us in this radical situation today, and which does not allow us to get any answers before we suffer the consequences.
Weighted down with large staples, the still long letter is accompanied by all the steps needed to depict a happy mess. Although the pillar of a vertical, monolithic system of bureaucratic control is made up of a colossal quantity of paper-one of the most highly combustible materials—we have to admit that it burns much more slowly. There's no need to ask that we don't play with matchboxes.
—
a§s
a§s
Matthieu Michaut, That's not a corn dog, steel and sand, variable dimensions, 2025
Matthieu Michaut, Untitled, boxes of LAMY (T10) ink cartridges, 38 × 70 × 8mm, 2025
Matthieu Michaut, HOME, key cabinet, till receipts, magic candles, photograph and house key, dimensions variable, 2025
ANALOG PHOTOS Eléonore Bonello (TOP)
Cards and exhibition text printed by Eléonore Bonello
Printing of the multiples by Matthieu Michaut and Thomas Michaut
Bar provided by Eléonore, Tanya and Renaud
Flowers donated by Renaud
The scan of the multiple was carried out by Matthieu
Multiple published as part of the exhibition