Aurélie Mathigot : Il y aura une fois

On the occasion of Paris Photo art fair, French visual artist and embroiderer Aurélie Mathigot took over Galerie le 16 to present works of eerie and chilling beauty. Black and white, light and dark, portraits and landscapes shot backwards, sleeping people petrified in canvas… the artist reinvented photographs as canvas backdrops she embellished with embroidery, Indian ink and beadwork. Inspired by André Breton’s words “Il y aura une fois” (a wordplay with the traditional fairy tale opening “Once upon a time,” reinvented in a future tense), Aurélie Mathigot reinvented daily life objects through the lens of André Breton’s surrealist vision. With her medium of choice: photography, textile, ceramic and drawing, she created staggering trompe-l’oeil and chilling tableaux.