Julien Vantal (1982)

Julien Vantal's work explores the connections between Art, Nature, and Man, questioning our relationship with the living world and its fragility. He says he creates nothing but simply reproduces this small world that we no longer see, the one we have stopped contemplating. Through his sculptures, he seeks to revive this lost attention, to remind us of the discreet beauty that surrounds us.

Each insect and plant he crafts comes to life under a glass dome, reminiscent of natural history collections of yesteryear, bearing witness to a world both preserved and threatened. His sculptures stand out through the meticulous use of pages from century-old books, silent witnesses of a bygone past. Their texture, scent, and patina carry a forgotten memory that he repurposes to capture the ephemeral. These fragments of paper, once bearers of lost wisdom, find new life in insects and plants that seem to breathe life. Yet, these small ecosystems are also unsettling mirrors of our impact on nature: silent cries hidden in the folds of paper, questioning what we choose to preserve... and to forget.