The series "Folds" imitates unfolded origamis. Once deployed, photographed and then redraw, these three-dimensional objects made of paper, become two-dimensional geometric images. The drawings highlight the duality between the second and the third dimension by playing with the effects of depth generated by the folds of the paper.

Folds

In his engraving work, Jean-Baptiste Monnin highlights architectural details. Each image is the result of an extensive field research. 

He takes pictures of the depicted subjects using unexpected viewpoints such as a low angle shot. Before using the selected picture he reframes, reverses or rotates it if needed in order to create an abstract urban landscape. He wants to give the feeling to the viewer that he can go inside the picture and walk on this landscape.

The image is then used as reference for the elaboration of the engravings.

This technique brings a new aspect to his work. Etching and aquatint are processes that open a path to the unforeseen. It allows him to render the textures of the architecture and give it a living appearance.

Monnin seeks to create futuristic landscapes devoid of recognizable objects in which the boundary between abstraction and the figurative fades away.


Printmaking

Made in situ, the drawings of the series Macrotexture reinterpret existing architectures by confronting the scales of representation. The textures of the facades are achieved by using a pencil on paper while pressed against the physical surfaces of the represented building. Rendered at full scale and not at the drawing scale, those textures reveal disproportionately large, the tactile qualities of the architecture. The reflections in the windows reference the microscopic details of the series Graphite on Paper. It gives the illusion of a cloudy sky on the glass whilst combining the microscopic and the macroscopic.

Macrotexture

The series, Graphite on Paper, is the result of a collaboration with the researcher and scientist Maxime Deforet from the Xavier Lab of Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center in New York City.
These pictures seek to explore the medium of drawing by approaching as close as possible. The result is a series of three large, square drawings reproducing a microscopic detail of a graphite mark on paper. Each drawing reproduces with pencil the same detail but at a different scale. This progressive magnification immerses the viewer into the microcosm of the interaction between the graphite and the fibre of the paper.
The detail has been produced using an advanced microscope. The lens used allows such magnification that it makes an imperceptible detail striking and visible to the naked eye.
Each drawing is made with graphite on a 150 x 150 cm piece of paper, the titles corresponding to the magnification scale:
1:1000 represents a detail, originally 1,2 x 1,2 mm.
1:5000 corresponds to 0,32 x 0,32 mm.
1:10000 is a magnified reproduction from an original detail of 0,16 x 0,16 mm.

Graphite on Paper

Unité d'habitation reproduces in miniature and up side down the foundations of the Cité Radieuse of Marseille build by Le Corbusier between 1945 and 1952.

Unités d'habitation

Basculement highlights existing architectural details through unexpected perspectives. Once created, the drawings are folded horizontally and vertically and then unfolded. Combined with the standard paper format, DIN A0, the folding technique refer to the technical drawing codes and creates a bridge between the represented subject and the physical material of the work.

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Jean-Baptiste Monnin