“The hand and the eye, in manipulating the materials, and in being manipulated by them, in quick succession, interrogate a hundred thousand possibilities before selecting just one.”

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While projecting and planning the exhibition: “Myria 10 000 spaces for the Imagination”, we came across the idea of creating a book, a kind of travel journal to be made entirely by hand and produced by ourselves..... the first sketches in pencil, the first thoughts on the blank page...The paintings hanging on the wall originate in these first marks on paper where are revealed, in the simplest of lines, the untold richness of the well of the imagination.

A book is an object in its own right, offering a journey to a continent of unexplored thoughts, drawings and poetic material which tell of the artist's process of discovery.

The works in the exhibition:

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The exhibition presents nearly 100 graphic works, for the most part drawings and paintings, but also “drawn” works in mixed materials and unusual substances, collages, assemblages and mono-prints. This large variety of means bears witness to the variety of content and subject matter that inspire the artist, where the figurative is to be found side by side with the abstract, and the purely representative mixes with mythological, poetic and imaginary themes.

The exhibition “Myria, 10 000 spaces for the imagination” is now open to the public in the theatre of Aurillac, Cantal, France.

The gallery spreads over three floors of this beautiful building which, modernized recently, hosts classic and contemporary theatre and concerts, and houses a generous gallery space for the visual arts. The exhibition opened on the 17th of September 2015. It will have an extended period of touring in other towns.

The book of 10 000 spaces for the imagination:

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An exhibition is more often than not, accompanied by a catalogue of the works presented. Rather than editing a simple inventory of works, we thought it more interesting to create an art-book, an artistic work in its own right. Of course the book shows a selection of the exhibited works, but in the end it is an exhibition in itself...it has become a free standing journal of poetic and allegoric sketches.

A journal of this kind, needs to be a tactile event. The paper is chosen for its grain, its shine or its thickness. The composition of the book needs to be worked thoroughly, its order of visual events too, so that it arrives at a point where it is its own story. Artists' books offer a unique opportunity to sound out the creative ideas and processes of the artist's work and to give them coherent form in the composing and layout of the pages.

“A poem is an invisible drawing; A drawing is a visible poem....Poetry is a form of knowledge – it not that you think you know more when you look again at nature after the poem – you actually know more.”

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“Drawing” covers a vast palette of means in the graphic terms of layout. Ideas and moments of inspiration find there their first concrete form before being worked into more complete painterly compositions, as well as into sculptural an installation art forms. The act of drawing can be considered as a thinking process whereby volatile images and pieces of images appear in the artist's mind and are given immediate form on the paper. Printed on the emptiness of white paper, these marks and forms begin to speak with one another across the divide of the imagination, offering yet new paths for thought to follow.

Who is at work behind the book?

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Tim Dalton, visual artist, painter and sculptor has produced the works to be found on exhibition an in the pages of the book. Since receiving his diploma in Fine Art schools in London and Krakow, he has explored the drawing medium for over 35 years, moving freely into painting, sculpture and theatre for the visual and plastic possibilities that they offer. He has developed a personal expression, at once narrative and abstract, and continues to explore the mercuric in all kinds of materials; he is as at home in paper, wood and metal as he is in the physical gesture of the actor in the theatre space.

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Nikos Appelquist is responsible for the look and the layout of the book. Having completed his studies as Director of Photography in cinema, he continues to stretch the means and borders of Image making. By way of the cinema he has explored composition and visual narrative. Through his work in still photography he has developed his sense for layout as well as his feeling for paper.

And Beyond this project?

This artist's book will be the first in a series of “exhibitions in book form”, developing and revealing different aspects of transforming the invisible into the visible. From the simplest gesture of the pencil to the soft touch of watercolour, from simple line to finished form, from the most delicate drawing to the inventiveness of collage.

This edition proposes to enter by the most primitive of lines in the artist's repertory, moving on to explore the outlines of the imaginary, the bottomless wells of thought, in order to discover there visual metaphors with which to shine a light on the world.

Myria, 10 000 lieux pour l'imaginaire