PASCAL LIÈVRE

Whether it is through his “silhouettes” paintings or his much acclaimed videos such as ‘Abba Mao’, ‘Axes of Evil’ and ‘Savoir Aimer’, Pascal Lièvre (born in 1963 in Lisieux, France) re-appropriates himself icons of pop culture and mixes them to create a new language. He constantly scraps out famous historical art works from all their geometrical structure and background in his paintings, keeping only the main character’s silhouette(s) to produce new minimalist, updated, familiar yet puzzling works. His paintings are a reflection on the History of Art as well as about all things we may take for granted, seeing them always from the same angles but once these angles change, then we will discover a whole new world.

His “karaoke” videos follow the same path as he mixes pop songs with key 20th and 21st century historic speeches and texts as a political tool to speak with wit about current and passionate issues. Interestingly, the subjects he treats are serious and deep but the new language he creates brings them into a new pop dimension. ”. In 2004, on average, his videos were being shown on a monthly basis, in at least five different locations or events all over the world.