On being one of a kind

Marc's canvases are a marriage between repetition and chance. They contain both the macro and the micro, stillness and gesture, fluidity and rigidity, rushes of speed and infinitesimal, painstaking patience. Each canvas is rooted in an abstraction which unfolds through “an initial phase of impulsive, almost performative execution, where the canvas becomes the receptacle of raw pictorial energy, followed by a long textile elaboration, where wool, fibers, and cotton come together to complicate and densify the visual space.” The initial phase is impetuous and reminiscent "of action painting, where the canvas records the trace of a body in motion. Yet, far from being content with this lyrical spontaneity, Marc effects a reversal: he introduces a tactile, almost archaeological dimension, by superimposing layers of organic materials. In doing so, he blurs the boundary between painting and sculpture, between surface and relief, initiating a reflection on the very materiality of the artwork. The hundreds of threads that invade the canvas are not mere decorative additions; they act as vectors of memory, scars or sutures that transform the ephemeral into the permanent. This tension between the instantaneous and the lasting, between the initial chaos and the constructed order, recalls the concerns of the Arte Povera artists, who combined poor materials and conceptual gesture.

It took Marc two years to perfect his technique; “no more hierarchy between painting and textile, only an organic continuum where each element, although distinct, contributes to the unity of the whole… Thus, Marc Bertin's work is neither pure painting nor textile art, but a subtle hybrid… an abstraction” that explores and celebrates the act of creation.