Francois BANCON
- Born in 1951 in France.
- Studied technology, art history and philosophy in Paris in the 70s. Designer / Engineer, Photographer, Painter since the mid-70s. Decides to stop painting in the mid-90s to use camera and computer. Then begins the series of photographs and “digital paintings”. Settled in Tokyo in 1999, then in Hong Kong in 2015 and in Shanghai since late 2020.
- Work structured in series (generally 9 to 20 elements) only able to account for the complexity of things, relationships, people and representation. The series, in general, uses "repetition" which often expresses a feeling of revolt and impropriety.
- The work of the last 20 years is influenced by 3 generic themes: Humanity, Memory and Resistance. More than 60 series to date) question more or less directly the place and role of the image in our societies in relation to what the image was in our (Western) civilizations, in turn Sign, Idol, Icon, propaganda and means of communication.
Characteristics :
- Almost unknown to the art world ... but is there an age to be discovered?
- Not close (and not very attracted) by the milieu and by the Art market (in general), its often hollow and superficial verbias and its mercantile crazes. Nonetheless a supporter of galleries and museums which support artists.
- Is represented in China by TNT Contemporary (Shenzhen) since 2019.
- Concerned primarily during these last 20 years by producing an intellectually consistent and current “work” rather than showing or even sharing at all costs.
- Not being a convinced practitioner of “Artificial Intelligence” or even virtual demonstrations, is very aware that the choice of digital in an otherwise “classic” representation context, places his work in a kind of “no Man's” land ”little appreciated by the market which likes nothing less than the classifications and the airtight drawers (there are fortunately some exceptions).
- Not a fan of so-called “immersive” works, often only decorative solutions. Supports the principle of “frontality” and the distance between the work and the viewer (instrumentalized relationship to the theater in the stage-room distance) which is one of the only means of transmitting (and not of communicating).
- Not a big fan of the Marketing / Art confusion, whose simplifying speeches and images have no consequences other than infantilization of the public.
- Admirer, as far as image production is concerned, of the pre-renaissance period (Icône - Cimabue) and renaissance (Fra Angelico, Giotto) ... of the beginnings of modern art as well and its distance from the subject (Rembrandt, Manet, Cézanne).
