PARIS.- Born in 1990, Tiago Francez is an artist originally from Lisbon, Portugal. Having graduated from the Faculty of Fine Arts, University of Lisbon, he has spent the last decade working between Lisbon, Paris, Mulhouse and London. He also has been a prolific neo-muralist and has been painting murals all across Europe since 2012. He has been working on the current subject matter for the greater part of 7 years; “Achille” is his first ever solo exhibition and the culmination of his work on the thematic elements outlined below.
In antiquity, the Greeks were one of the first people to inquire deeply upon the human condition. Out of this thought was born the oft spoken tale of Achille, the prototypic example of the manifestation of both the weakness and strength in man. Achille is both a representation of the limitless and indestructible power of man, but also his inherent ego, frailty, and ultimately human flaws that are our omnipresent shackles. Curiously, the name Achille itself is defined by two words: áchos — meaning grief; and laós — meaning people or a nation. He is both a singular man in his sorrow and heroism, and all men in their grief and unity; he is both one point of immense power and all points in an amalgamation.
This leads to the concept of a point, the most reduced term of the universe, both mathematically and philosophically. Aristotle was one of the first men to actually define an atom as the most fundamental and basic component of matter, thus not only is a point an atom — an absolute locus of infinitesimal power — but collectively an entity.
The real nature of the work is to inquire upon the lines that blur individuality and collectivism. At which point does an organism cease to be a component of its parts and become an entity?
All matters of life are divided into moments in which they are singular units, or a multitude in a collective state. The genesis of a human being is the most curious situation in which this happens, in the almost comical mathematical paradox of our existence, 1+1 = 1. Upon our conception, we are separately sperm and ovum, each a discrete unit — whole in their own respects — yet distinctly destined for unity.
The observer is invited to explore the particular components of our being. Each work is a study in and of itself of the basic structures of our self. The observer may choose to look closely at the painting, and see the individual points, unique in their positioning. One may gradually step back and see them in clusters, and subsequently form the image in question. Ultimately, it, the final structure is formed; in some cases, a fetus, perhaps a cell, a limb, or an organ. However, the more one delves into a singular structure, the more you will see that it is furthermore a component of an even larger one. In that sense, all entities are both singular and unified. The birth of life is both a momentous and glorious event, celebrating the unification of cells and simultaneously the starting-point of a finite existence, insignificant in its multitude. In our embryonic stages we are in an existential limbo, the process of the assembly of our particles. The artistic study of our embryogenesis is an inquiry into the very nature of our divergence and convergence from and into singularity. Drawing parallels between the quantum and metaphysical nature of our perception through the usage of points to manipulate light and the observer’s perspective, combined with the biological dissection of our being, leads to a meticulous inquisition that links each cluster of our being to the existential paradox of Achille.
