Primitive by Cyril de Commarque is a poetic interpretation of satellite images of the destruction zones of primitive forests. The repetitive motifs of deforestation – the patterns – are used as an aesthetic structure for sculptures made with trees cut down in the 1970s in the artist's kindergarten, due to an illness.
Cyril de Commarque explores here the notion of primitive not as an archaic form, but as a return to the essential, to the childhood of life, to ecosystems. These forests symbolically represent the last image of a possible coexistence. However, the primitive forest paradoxically clashes with the primitive behaviors of an exasperated capitalism.
The primitive forest is a whole, an ecosystem, a center of essential inspiration.
The creation of each work becomes itself a questioning of human and technological evolution. To create his sculptures, Cyril de Commarque initially relies on the precision of an industrial robot, Kuka, which sculpts approximately 60% of each piece, before meticulously completing the work by hand. This juxtaposition of advanced technology and craftsmanship embodies the complex transition period we are living through, marked by the emergence of artificial intelligence and robotics. By comparing the organic and the mechanical, Commarque questions our relationship with progress and our ability to preserve an ecological balance.
The works on display thus invite the viewer to a critical reflection on the human perception of nature in the Anthropocene era, that era defined by the massive impact of human activities on the planet. Primitive ecosystems constitute our last intact link with the original.
The Primitive series was presented at the Royal Academy of Art and at the Saatchi Gallery in London.