An author on the Pont du Gard - Patrick Siméon’ event

The programme:

- Friday 6 September:
- 6.30pm: signing of the book ‘Mourir les papillons’ published by l'Harmattan.
Accompanied by a reading of selected pieces by Laurence Désimeur - Nicole Bousquet and Jacques-Olivier Durand.
Venue: Croisées rive gauche

- 7.30pm: Opening of the exhibition ‘Mourir les papillons, un rêve de plus’.
.Venue: Left Bank reception area. Wine reception hosted by Caves 41.

Exhibition on show from Friday 6 to Sunday 8 September inclusive.
A free tombola will be organised with the winner's choice of a work from the exhibition. 

Patrick Siméon

He has had several lives... all dominated by passion.
Passion for bulls, first and foremost, which led him to come face to face with death in a confrontation with a wild animal that almost cost him his life.
Then there was his passion for art, a natural extension of his passion for bullfighting. Less physically risky but just as violent and sublime at the same time. Now a man and a bull, he is in a constant creative struggle with himself, combining instinct and drive.

A true autodidact, his approach is as experimental as it is thoughtful (unconsciously). His gaze is constantly nourished by what surrounds him, what he sees, hears, touches, loves and feels... to recreate it in an explosion of colours and a whirlwind of shapes, expressing all the strength and gentleness of his Being.

Mourir les papillons’ / A book about love, but not just that...
Gabriel is a fallen angel. Yet everything smiles on him. He has a magical life, without ever having asked for anything. His lucky star has taken care of everything for him. Always. His lucky star is Louise, whom he met when they were students from such different backgrounds. Young lovers, then newlyweds, then young parents. Quiet, bourgeois comfort. Now in his fifties, Gabriel is happy with this life. At a party, he shares an idea with an architect friend. It was an idea of genius, a revelation, a cultural and artistic revolution. Gabriel left for Paris. A new life, far from Louise, just for a while. But the angel is cut down in mid-air, struck by lightning, by madness. It was her. But before his downfall, his descent into hell, the angel Gabriel will discover love, true love, mad love, with all its magnificence and storms. To the very end, just for Her, just for Her... and the butterflies. The Other doesn't know all this. He never knows.

The works
The paintings presented here are done on paper left over from printing, on public notice boards, on paper picked up left and right on his walks, on old planks of wood. This principle of recovery is part of the support/surface artistic movement, which consists of reviving a medium destined for destruction as a work of art.