With the exhibition “Valentin Carron & Jacques Chessex,” the tichyocean presents Valentin Carron, an artist born in Martigny in 1977, alongside renowned French-speaking Swiss writer Jacques Chessex, exhibiting for the first time in Zurich with previously little-known, small-scale visual works in the form of gouaches and collages.

At the heart of the exhibition stands Carron’s larger-than-life sculpture titled Man and Child, specially conceived for this presentation. The sculpture, at the artist’s request, is set in dialogue with over fifty collages by Chessex (1934–2009), serving as a sculptural focal point against Chessex’s existentialist paper works. His works are populated with a variety of oddly intriguing figures—sometimes distinctly human (often female or androgynous) and other times resembling mythical creatures, such as the Minotaur with its bull’s head and human body. These pieces probe human behaviors and the dark chasms they reveal.

A central theme is hypocrisy, a motif that also runs through Chessex’s literary work.

Many of Carron’s works are faithful recreations or reinterpretations of existing artifacts, including decorative patterns and public sculptures from his immediate surroundings. His wooden sculpture Man and Child, executed in a thickly layered color palette, reflects the variations of human representation in the architectural art of the 1950s and 60s, as seen in many places worldwide. The works’ angular features, reminiscent of artists like Lynn Chadwick, are a key characteristic. Carron’s visual language engages with a globally oriented symbology, adapting and satirizing it to transform it into an essential component of his artistic exploration.

Carron provokes through stylistic contrasts and the use of simulated materials, raising questions about originality and reproduction, and especially about tradition and identity.

The exhibition space itself plays a crucial role in Carron’s work. “I am megalomaniacal and love the idea that each exhibition forms a new space or combination of spaces that, when assembled, create an enormous palace,” the artist notes. “I often think of ‘Xanadu,’ the estate of Citizen Kane. Each work fulfills its own criteria, yet for me, it’s also an invitation for the viewer to navigate the entire exhibition space. Ideally, the viewer would wander between the works, experiencing sensations that dictate where to stand or how to view each piece, as if following a score or choreography.”