M2 MAC Exhibition: “What Kinds of Objects!”

In the landscapes he drew as a student, David Bioulès imbued pylons, signs, and other inanimate objects with a fresh, colorful new individuality. Beginning in the 2000s, he gradually moved away from the backgrounds of his compositions, allowing the objects themselves to take center stage. His work then took on a more industrial tone as it evolved into series.

David Bioulès’s collection bridges the gap between the ordinary and the extraordinary, creating a direct encounter with each object: chosen at random, they are then cherished out of habit. Although he does not define himself as a conceptual artist, Bioulès engages with the works of Duchamp, Kosuth, Tosani, and Dion, and extends their sociological and critical approach to the object.

Together, the specimens form species, herds, forests, and microbiomes, returning to the wild; when isolated, they exist as individuals in their own right. In *Espèces d’objets!*, the silhouettes that make up David Bioulès’s studio are reorganized, classified, and meticulously analyzed through the lens of the living world. Through its curatorial and scenographic choices, the exhibition aims to prompt viewers to reflect on the practices of collecting and the fetishization of objects, the consumption and production of our surroundings, and the human desire to master the world.

Far from being static, the objects chosen here carry within them the silent stories of everyday life. Their ubiquity in art prompts us to reflect on what we project onto them, what they reveal about us, and the traces they leave in our imagination.