When I first discovered Jacqueline Lamba's work, I was struck by the energy of her drawings, as if the presence of living water in these landscapes transfigured the environment.
In conversation with Pauline Pavec and Quentin Derouet, I discovered that some of the drawings had been made not far from here, in Bures-sur-Yvette. I decided to check them out, in search of resurgences. In the 1960s, water was gushing out of Bures-sur-Yvette, but what could we see today?
On a late summer's morning, I set out to explore the Yvette, its emerged, canalized and re-channelled stretches. In search of a fountain, only a plaque mentioned its past location. Some street names recalled the presence of springs or wetlands. Along planted banks, I discovered calm water whose surface, sometimes braided with a multitude of strands, told of a slowed flow.
I came across infrastructures built to protect against flooding, to channel water and filter waste. Weirs, flood control basins, cofferdams... so many technical objects that constrain the course of water in order to cohabit with it. Strangely enough, the water came to life with greater movement as it passed through these devices. But where is the living water?
In Jacqueline Lamba's drawings, energy is diffused, sources spread, natural flows interact. I wanted to understand what a resurgence was.
By building a wall of research, I discovered land and marine exsurgences. I followed the infiltration of rainwater into the ground and the reappearance of underground water on the surface. I wanted to use drawings to illustrate the way in which a resurgence is formed and, conversely, the way in which technical devices channel the flow.
Going to the water always means access to knowledge. In any case, it's my way of learning a little more about the world.
Series of drawings for the exhibition Résurgences, in dialogue with works by Jacqueline Lamba at Galerie Pauline Pavec in December 2023.
