Olivier Leroi

Born 1962 in Romorantin-Lanthenay (France), he lives and works in Nançay (France).  

Bruno, l’âne et les papillons, ambulatory work between Le Mas-d’Azil and Toulouse (2012)
 

Olivier Leroi is an original, notably by virtue of his favoured themes, which are often contextual and related to his immediate and instinctive experience of the territory. Forks, tree branches, guinea fowl feathers, bird cages and rabbit hutches, requisitioning of farm--bred animals or animals from the forest where huntsmen meet. Does that make Olivier Leroi a bard of the countryside? That’s only half of it. Steeped in a kindly magic but also in mischief, as close to Duchamp or Hains as to the “inspired” outsiders once dear to the photographer Gilles Ehrmann (the Postman Cheval, Gaston Chaissac, etc.), Leroi’s work is impossible to classify. It privileges the natural environment, from meadows to African deserts, all places for the expression of an enchanted and euphoric relation to the world.

For this collaboration between le Printemps de septembre and Caza d’oro, the artist has conceived a “nomadic” exhibition that visitors will be able to discover in processional mode, going from village to village on donkey-back.

Before completing its tour at les Abattoirs – Musée Frac Occitanie Toulouse on 9 September (6pm), Olivier Leroi’s ambulatory performance, Bruno,l’âne et les papillons, will have crossed paths with:

25/9 : Le Mas d’Azil et le Carla Bayle
26/9 : Le Carla Bayle et Lézat sur Lèze,
27/9 : Lézat sur Lèze et Beaumont sur Lèze
28/9 : Beaumont sur Lèze et Pins Justaret
29/9 : Pins Justaret et Toulouse
 

A presentation of the overall sequence is being presented at Les Abattoirs – Musée Frac Occitanie Toulouse from 28 September to 21 October