Groune de Chouque's Dust Aesthetics at Swiss Embassy Paris

Groune de Chouque (b. 1963) presents an exhibition at the Swiss Embassy in Paris from May 16 to August 29, 2003, featuring works made from household rags filled with dust collected from her studio, home, and streets. The artist creates rectangular compositions mixing tissue paper, natural pigments, plastic fragments, decomposed flowers, and thousands of dust particles. She describes this as an 'intimate factory of rag collections,' where hands knead and brushes spread pigments onto banal materials. The rags also contain mold, and the works are soaked and mounted on plastic supports, displaying organic waste in advanced decomposition, bound with glue, dry pigments, and beeswax. The resulting pieces appear light and floating, revealing hidden strata. Chouque aims to develop a 'dust aesthetics,' questioning what is not immediately visible. The review by Patrick Amine draws a comparison to François Dagognet's work on waste, noting key differences.