Pascal Convert's Wax Sculptures at Mudam Explore Absence and Memory

French artist Pascal Convert, born 1957 in Bayonne and living in Biarritz, presents a major exhibition of his wax sculptures at Mudam in Luxembourg from October 13 to November 26, 2007. The show is accompanied by a monograph titled 'Lamento' with texts by Marie-Claude Beaud, Philippe Dagen, Georges Didi-Huberman, Catherine Millet, and Bernard Stiegler. Convert, known for monochrome and polychrome wax sculptures, stained glass, videos, and wall drawings, also releases a book and a film on Joseph Epstein, a forgotten hero of the French Resistance. Additionally, three books are published on the Biarritz villas that inspired his early works. Convert's practice centers on the dialectic between presence and absence, often using news photographs as source material for sculptures that resist the erosion of memory. His works include the Pieta of Kosovo (after Georges Mérillon), the Madonna of Benthala (after Hocine Zaourar), and the death of Mohamed Al Dura (after Talal Abou Rahmé), all addressing violent deaths. Through varied materials and techniques, Convert creates pieces that are 'the presence of an absence,' confronting political amnesia and the fleeting nature of media images. Critic Philippe Dagen, writing in Le Monde, emphasizes the political dimension of Convert's work, which opposes the constant flow of images in contemporary society.