Jérémie Gindre's First Solo Show in France at La BF15

Jérémie Gindre (b. 1978) presented his first solo exhibition in France at La BF15 in Lyon, running from October 16, 2003 to November 22, 2004. The exhibition title borrowed from emphatic film promotion quotes. A central work, 'Croisière de vase' (2003), was a life-sized pleasure boat on floats, visible from the window facing Place des Terreaux. Its front featured a trompe-l'oeil arrest scene painted in a deliberately clumsy style reminiscent of a pizzeria mural, while the back showed an abandoned card game, cigarette butts, and beer cans suggesting a hasty escape from police. Gindre's narratives evoke petty 'picnic delinquency' with seasonal folklore references to mountain wildlife or aquatic landscapes. His stereotypical male characters (often played by the artist) and handmade banal objects recall popular photo-novels, TV reports, B-movies, or old radio programs—including his own phonetic adaptation of a short story on the first floor. The works deliberately employ theatrical sets, cardboard landscapes, models, cinema stand-ups, and other artifice (stuffed animals, artificial snow). The reverse of the boat revealed the structure holding the painted panels, exposing the illusion and refusing deception. Gindre's work operates in a double movement: first evocation, then distancing, aiming to unsettle the viewer and signal that everything is masquerade and simulated simulacrum.