Philippe Decrauzat's Abstraction as Method at Le Plateau

Philippe Decrauzat's exhibition at Le Plateau in Paris, running from March 17 to May 15, 2011, presents abstraction not as a school but as a method. The Lausanne-born artist focuses on the radical aspects of avant-gardes without embracing radicality itself. His works function as operations that subtract an element from the whole through imagination, treating abstraction as a system where definition drives action and meaning precedes essence. In the first room, Decrauzat transforms painting into a prism, spreading a black grid that bends under the gaze. The piece "On Cover" details and enlarges a moiré pattern from a 1963 scientific journal cover. The optical effect requires precise positioning: the movement of black lines on white produces colored spots on the retina. Two videos further explore the plasticity of wavelengths. One synchronizes shots of radio antennas from the opening credits of François Truffaut's "Fahrenheit 451" with monochrome filters. The other turns casino chips from Hans Richter's experimental film into phosphenes. Decrauzat manipulates the imprint of his borrowings, making abstraction a refraction of forms and concepts.