David Gilbert — Apparitions

The MEP presents the first solo exhibition in France dedicated to American artist David Gilbert, bringing together a selection of works created over the past fifteen years. At the intersection of photography, sculpture, drawing, painting and installation, his practice explores the narrative and poetic possibilities of staging. In his studio, Gilbert constructs and photographs assemblages made from modest and ephemeral materials — paper cut-outs, draped fabrics, string and found objects — transforming them into anti-monumental sculptures and delicate, precisely crafted aerial constructions. Rooted in an almost childlike approach to making and play, these fragile forms appear to exist in a state of precarious balance. His photographs reveal the intimacy of the studio, where natural light enhances the materials and transforms each composition into an enchanted scene, reminiscent of a secret garden. The exhibition brings together works with twilight atmospheres: paper castles, translucent curtains, unstable structures and erotic drawings, all bathed in the final rays of daylight filtering through the windows. Suspended between model, still life and a miniature theatre emptied of its actors, these assemblages appear in a state of suspension, where the construction already bears the traces of its own disappearance. For David Gilbert, photography becomes the space in which these delicate forms, destined to fade away, continue to exist. Curatorship by Victoria Aresheva.