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Hyper-Palimpseste
Following a three-month artist residency at LM Studio in Hyères, Auréline Caltagirone developed a body of work presented in the exhibition “Hyper-Palimpsest.”
Through a series of works inspired by construction practices and the concept of territory, Auréline Caltagirone explores transitional spaces where our environment is constantly transforming. By encouraging viewers to view the city as a layered structure where the past and present coexist, the artist pays homage to impermanence. This invites viewers to look at what may seem uncomfortable or unsettling differently and perceive a form of memory and renewal within it. In this view, the past never truly disappears, but persists beneath the present.
Through a series of works inspired by construction practices and the concept of territory, Auréline Caltagirone explores transitional spaces where our environment is constantly transforming. By encouraging viewers to view the city as a layered structure where the past and present coexist, the artist pays homage to impermanence. This invites viewers to look at what may seem uncomfortable or unsettling differently and perceive a form of memory and renewal within it. In this view, the past never truly disappears, but persists beneath the present.
— It was an exploration of the memory and poetry of urban construction sites.
The sculpture Gigot Bitume echoes a late 19th-century tradition of sharing a piece of meat cooked in asphalt at the end of the road paving process. Resembling a piece of meat sealed in tar, the sculpture references a material once used in the mummification of bodies in the ancient Middle East: a mixture of resin and bitumen. Today, bitumen is associated with urbanization and pollution, but it was once associated with care, preservation, and medicine.
L’enrobée, 2025
The sculpture enters into dialogue with a video filmed on an asphalt construction site. The video shows the endless back-and-forth movement of a machine compacting material on a still-smoking road. The machine's motion and the drifting smoke create a hypnotic effect, evoking a molten, almost volcanic substance. This repetition embodies the cyclical nature of constructing and reconstructing our cities.
Within the space, a fragment of concrete engraved with a construction vehicle extends this idea. In the Hyères region, where these works were produced, many Renaissance-era forts have engravings of ships made by sailors trying to depict their means of transportation. Here, this gesture becomes an "archaeology of the present," granting aesthetic value to contemporary vehicles and professions that often remain invisible.
The last photograph shows a series of images also presented in this exhibition: an archive of close-up shots of ground markings from the city of Hyères. Taken out of their original context, they become floating, almost glyph-like signs — a language that eludes us.
The last photograph shows a series of images also presented in this exhibition: an archive of close-up shots of ground markings from the city of Hyères. Taken out of their original context, they become floating, almost glyph-like signs — a language that eludes us.
