"To express life, action verbs are more useful than words".
"Action verbs are at the heart of Frédérique Nalbandian's work. The artist grasps, dips, crumples, manipulates, sculpts, shapes the soap. Patiently and forcefully, she brings ancient forms to life. The figures of Hygie and Panacea, goddesses respectively personifying body care and universal remedy, welcome us to the gallery, which takes on the appearance of a temple with its high, narrow space. How can we fail to be amazed by this work of soap at a time when we are experiencing an unprecedented obsession with hand-washing and fear of disease?
Frédérique Nalbandian invites visitors to touch her work after getting their hands wet. A profane purification ceremony is performed in the art space. Touch the statue, and the soap's chemistry kicks in. Underneath its contingent appearance, soap is in fact a very compact, solid material that can remain unchanged for a very long time, even in the presence of water. In fact, without friction, wet soap hardly ever spoils. You have to rub it, caress it, fully grasp it before it starts to disappear.
Main exhibitions at the gallery :
