The monograph on Alan Fertil is dedicated entirely to the artist’s drawings, which will be exhibited at the Centre d’art Passerelle in February 2022.

“When you look at them for the first time, some of Alan Fertil’s drawings stand out from the body of unknown works presented in this book dedicated to his work. The drawings have in common the recurring figure of a central void, out of which appears an image or a memory, caught off guard or seen through a keyhole. They bear inscriptions that seem to point out the motives of their silent magnetism: “The Whole room”, “The Memory Lagoon”, “The Smoken Ridge”.

The locomotive roaring out of the primeval forest evoked by André Breton in Mad Love as a potential illustration of convulsive beauty, the spyglass cutting out the landscape and a  microscope scrutinizing the infinitely small – these are frames broken down from the same scopic drive. You will inevitably think of the 19th century illusionist shows, as well as of Marcel Duchamp and his famous cryptic work: Étant donnés: 1° la chute d’eau 2° le gaz d’éclairage [Given: 1. The Waterfall, 2. The Illuminating Gas] – appreciated through two holes in a wall – the ultimate peeping Tom of 20th century art.

Extract from Louise Grislain, Memory Lagoon, Alan Fertil drawings, sketches and notes.