Yves Zurstrassen exhibition at the Salagon museum

Who among us doesn’t have memories of this moment when our parents, our school teacher, invited us to discover the joy of cutouts? By freely appropriating the pages of a magazine or colored sheets, the little child in us was introduced to the creative force of association, by bringing together pieces cut out by the clumsy strokes of a pair of scissors.

Or better yet: hand torn. Without forgetting the magic of the stick or the brush dripping with white or translucent glue – ah, that unforgettable smell – which freezes the released pieces again in a new universe.

We must believe that Yves Zurstrassen knew how to preserve within himself this freedom of childhood. The collages of this self-taught Belgian painter are so many “variations” which display all the resonances of this primary art. But in his approach, the work is done in reverse: he chooses to start by covering his canvas with newspaper cutouts. Then, after having painted them red, he delicately chisels shapes by peeling off the different layers, while preserving reserves of white between them.

By choosing the varied shades of red, Yves Zurstrassen recalls in our memory the radiance of blood and the emotion of a cheek. The prohibition of a traffic sign and the splendor of a flower. So many pieces of life that this assembly makes dance in a joyful whirlwind.