For his first solo exhibition at Galerie Eva Vautier, Tom Barbagli brings together a body of works around mass and gravity.
For his first solo exhibition at Galerie Eva Vautier, Tom Barbagli brings together a body of works around mass and gravity. Trained at the Institut Supérieur de Design in Valenciennes, Tom Barbagli places the object at the heart of his practice. Found, salvaged, repaired or augmented, his materials question the boundary between art and design. He observes, transforms and diverts matter through an ingenious set of mechanisms, magnets and liquids. The universe integrates itself naturally into these devices: galaxies, solar systems, planets. Tom Barbagli records the world in objects activated by gesture, whether that of the artist or of the visitor, thereby revealing their scope and their potential for movement. He draws on fluid mechanics and sound waves in his installations. Sounds, generated by machines or captured in nature, become vectors of temporal distortion: they accelerate, slow down or suspend time, plunging the visitor into the centre of his universe. Tom Barbagli’s works revolve around the relationship between time and matter. They unfold through light and movement, in a research rooted in the relations between mechanisms, tensions, rotations and temporal distortions. The artist captures the universe at different scales, from the micro to the macro, and offers a gaze that is at once sensitive and technical. His creations take varied forms: from small objects to monumental installations, while keeping the same rigour, inspired by the laws of physics. Tom Barbagli explores the affinities and fractures between the worlds of design and art, working to erase their edges and limits. He engages in singular experiments, diverting the laws of physics with utilitarian materials (motors, light-emitting diodes, hard drives) as much as with natural matter (beeswax, solid wood, minerals). The ingenuity of the mechanical assemblies then creates dreamlike objects or immersive installations, akin to micro-phenomena. The exhibition is concerned with what keeps us on the ground. Gravity is the weakest of the fundamental forces: a simple magnet is enough to lift a paperclip against the pull of the entire Earth. It is this paradox, the fragility of what holds us on Earth, that the artist sets in play through magnetism, sound and vibration. Raw matter sits alongside the mathematical and metaphysical principles that question it. The exhibition is conceived as a reconnection with something we carry within us without paying it any attention. On the gallery’s upper floor, in partnership with the OVNi 2026 festival: Suspension , 2026, 6-minute video on loop. This exhibition is in partnership with the OVNi festival. With the support of the galleries/exhibitions scheme of the Centre national des arts plastiques.
