Par les Sillons is the title of the next publication by Vincent Fortemps (°1967) to be published by FRMK. Although he has been touring a lot lately as a "performer" with "cinemécanique", he is above all a "director" of stories. His latest work, which will be released in a few months' time, is presented here in the form of 184 original drawings.

The notion of narrative is preponderant in contemporary art and Vincent Fortemps brings an original reflection on how to treat it. In Par les Sillons, he evokes the First World War by following a character who goes to war and comes back. Vincent Fortemps masterfully expresses the difficulty and anguish that animate these "returnees". Between appearance and erasure, this returnee could also be perceived as a phantasmatic projection of the wife who stayed at home. There is no certainty, just scattered fragments which, once assembled, make sense.

Relying on a remarkable technique, the artist purges the colour black of all its anger and all its dramatic power. The prodigality of the blacks, the deposits of matter (he uses grease pencils intended for the lithographic technique) are counterbalanced by the reserves, the repentirs that he orchestrates with tools ranging from the bare hand to the razor blade. The black is full of nuances ranging from a deep black to a diaphanous grey that floats in the air (an atmosphere made possible by the transparent support [rhodoïd] which reacts very differently from paper).

These drawings, in which one can feel the artist's struggle with light and with himself, are hard and sharp like broken glass, even if some of them tend towards a refined abstraction. Nature (fauna and flora) is constantly called upon, whether to refine the psychology of the characters in a metaphorical way (solitude, despair, etc.) or to give the general atmosphere to the story (languor, melancholy, daydreaming, etc.). Densely paced, the breathing of the story gives the reader the opportunity to fully invest in the story while finding some transitional sequences that turn out to be lighter.

His work, full of scent and musicality, focuses on the solitude of the individual in the face of the immensity and savagery of the world. A lengthy narrative, Par les Sillons can be considered as the most complete and in-depth work drawn by Vincent Fortemps to date.