Untitled (2011) is a 200 to 135 centimeter sheet put on the ground and coated with graphite powder – crossed by a fold, it is slightly lifted up. Untitled (2011) is a plywood panel leveled up by a restraint strap which slightly curves it. Apart from their title and date of production, both pieces have in common to (partly) lift up a flat surface. Those uplifts are the result of simple interventions. Their insecure state seems to create an unfrozen movement. The whole set-up could suddenly fall back at any minute.

The intervention, with all its spontaneity and swiftness involved, is what works the materials. Besides, showing materials with almost no formatting is constantly at stake in the work by Julie Darribère Saintonge. In particular with Mettre dans la voix des parenthèses (2012) which could almost be considered as a display of wood, fabrics, and paper pieces of all kind. Gathered along a wall, they seem to wait for an action to come and activate them. It is almost like they were waiting for the « Go! » to get started. Here again, there is no explicit sign of the intervention’s presence or action. That is indeed this latency state that characterizes best the work by Julie Darribère Saintonge where activity serves the creation of movement more than activity as such.

Text : François Aubart