Le monde de Jean-François Fourtou

First monograph by the artist Jean-François Fourtou, whose artistic language - born of a dreamlike world emerging from his childhood memories - combines sculpture, architecture and photography, and offers experiences to be lived as much as achievements to be seen.

Taking his personal history as a starting point, the artist likes to play with our own memories, feelings and questions. Invoking our memory, he seems to open up passages towards an intimate process tracing our past and liberating our dreams. Whether it is La Maison tombée du ciel, La Maison de géant, La Ruche, les Nanitos, his installations concretise, in a poetic resonance, with power and humanity, the notion of builders of lives. This publication presents the works of Jean-François Fourtou through more than thirty years of career. It accompanies the reader in understanding his creative path (themes, mediums, sites...) by opening up the analytical fields of his artistic trajectories.

This monograph is enriched by texts by Paul Ardenne (who sheds light on the nature of the artist's work, its motives, its form, its impact), Marie Darrieussecq (who focuses particularly on the dreamlike character of Jean-François Fourtou's work) and a series of interviews with Isabelle Bouffard (who develops with the artist the keys to the reading of his work that lie beyond its first playful appearances).