Who is the Poem?

The exhibition "Who is the Poem?" presents a selection of paintings by the artist Babou.

Born in Villeneuve-sur-Lot, Christian Baboulène, known as Babou, was one of the French painters who participated in the Narrative Figuration movement, from which he gradually distanced himself. Highly prolific, he produced more than 1,700 paintings and drawings during his lifetime. The son and grandson of carpenters and roofers, he extensively used architectural motifs and building elements as the basis for a pictorial practice centered on exploring the interplay of color as a source of inquiry into painting itself.

The aim of this project is to juxtapose Babou's paintings with the architecture and decoration of the Carmelite Chapel in Toulouse. The dialogue between the exhibited artworks and the space of the Carmelite Chapel is woven around motifs of Baroque ornamentation, drawing on poetry as much as psychoanalysis—perhaps even two sides of the same coin. Thus, visitors are offered only a suggestive experience. However, a lighting installation allows for a more directly performative event at dusk, where the ornamentation disappears, leaving only the canvases. The canvases on display are from the Domes series, which occupied Christian Baboulène from 1976 to 1980.