Vincent Olinet incorporates his sculptures, installations and videos into immersive systems, where the central themes are the passage of time and one’s relationship to space. While, in many ways, one could trace the lineage of his work to 17th century Flemish still lifes, spectators will instead experience these pieces as encounters with exuberant, Baroque objects – ones that are half-finished and decadent, yet refined, where classical canons of beauty are decidedly not respected. What results is an impression of subterfuge and the subversion of good taste that leads to the cheerful and knowing fascination in anyone who lays eyes upon it.
In the Temple du Goût (18th century), Olinet continues his sculptural exploration by transforming the space into a seemingly domestic décor with an air of decadence and… gluttony. Chandeliers with clumsy and coarse mouldings, wainscoting made of overlapping slices of bread and flashy colours, brooms with manes of hair, each with fluorescent highlights, all come together in a sophisticated and phantasmagorical mix undermining a style known as “Nantes Baroque” – a local variation of Rococo.
