
The Nuage Vert association is organizing, in Argentat-sur-Dordogne, the Histoires de Passages festival on the theme of Plant Life. As part of this event, Romain Froquet is creating, within the Jeanne d’Arc chapel, an installation featuring his plant-based artworks entitled “Forêt de signes” (Forest of Signs). As a link between heaven and earth, the tree embodies humankind’s perpetual need to put down roots. It has been present in Romain Froquet’s work since his early days, beginning with his “Urban tree” project.
The artist tackled his work at the end of spring, when the sap is at its peak. In the forest across from his studio, in Corrèze, he harvested branches of hazelnut and chestnut. Using materials found in his surrounding environment allows him to link his personal history to his aesthetic research.
It was a challenge for Romain Froquet to prepare the wood and bend it while considering the natural tension of the raw material. He worked carefully to find a balance so that the line he recreates in space embodies the fluidity of his gesture and his painted movement.
With this installation, viewers can decide whether to join the space occupied by the artwork or to confront it. By doing so, they discover the interplay of overlapping and transparency proposed by the artist. Here, the lines deconstruct the space, distorting our perspective and recreating a three-dimensional portal that connects us to the earth.
This connection is sometimes lost amid the flows that surround us, and this refined proposal reminds us that one cannot exist without the other.