Artist Booklet - Cédric Taldu - 2026
Visible body, divisible body, lived body.
This booklet presents my research into the contemporary body and brings together a selection of recent works in India ink. Anatomy, memory and experience come together to explore the gap between the body we show and the one we inhabit.FIELD OF RESEARCH
My work explores what becomes of the contemporary body when it has to contend with the images that normalise it. The social gaze demands a legible body. The digital image turns it into a surface. Gradually, the image of the self can take precedence over the experience of the self. Memory inhabits this body, and the body is shaped by what it goes through. A wound or a fear leaves its mark and remains. Sometimes this memory stays discreet; sometimes it screams. India ink drawing progresses point by point through dense spaces where something can be sensed without revealing itself at first glance. This density reveals what the body has been through. The visible body is the one our time puts on display. The divisible body is the one the drawing brings into being. The lived body is the one that takes shape through this process.
THE BODY AS A FIELD OF EXPERIMENTATION
Drawing progresses slowly. With India ink, every point engages the surface. The image is built through successive reworkings and densities. Areas of white are left open. This slowness corresponds to the nature of the body I am trying to reach. I work from recognisable anatomical structures. Their original function remains present, but the drawing leads them towards other uses. A joint becomes a space of construction. A shoulder carries what it has been through. Each sheet becomes a field of experimentation. Elements are brought into relation until they produce an organisation capable of holding together. The body then appears as a possible construction, grounded in reality and shaped by experience. The point makes this approach possible. It accumulates and digs into the surface. It slows down the gaze. Something gradually takes shape, like a memory made visible through density. The drawing explores relationships. It moves towards a question: how can form be given to a body that retains what it has been through? This work begins with a shared experience. We all know the gap between the body we show and the body we inhabit. The works give visible form to that gap.