I often ran into Éric Seydoux, but we didn’t really get to know each other until the spring of 2009. The time that I spent at his workshop had been intense, although sometimes Éric seemed to be extremely tired. I felt that there was no time to lose.

I had already made a screenprint, Le Rêve est brisé (The dream is broken), followed by his invitation to make a greeting card for the New Year, but it was the series 10 bons plans (10 good projects) which led to our privileged moments together.

Working from sketches of installations that were subsequently created in differ-ent contexts, I wanted to make the most of these projects, which constitute the early stages of research. My intention was especially to highlight the loss or trans-formation of these past events, given that over time they became less clear and precise in my memory, leaving me with vague impressions. Thanks to our discus-sions, the work done manually through screenprinting on cardboard and glass accurately conveyed this sense of time’s passing. Éric quickly knew which method would be the best for creating a hol-lowed-out image with a combined mat, brilliant and reflective surface.

Today, I can’t help but associate the image that I still have of Éric–his great intimidating beauty and his intuition for figuring things out–to that of the series that we created together.

In 2010, a research group, of which I was co-responsible with other colleagues from the Regional Fine-Arts School of Rouen and Le Havre, invited Éric to exhibit at the spacious Galleries of the Saint-Maclou cloister*. What stood out

in this exhibition was undeniably the innovation of his processes. Éric knew how to wonderfully combine textures, surfaces and colors in objects, books and posters. He had a great affinity for paper, of course, but also for Plexiglas, glass, tracing paper, aluminum and fab-ric, adapting serigraphy to all kinds of printing surfaces.

Éric Seydoux loved to work with artists, and he loved the collaborative process.

Dominique De Beir, July 2024

* Éric Seydoux & SHOBOSHOBO, ESADHaR, Rouen, December 2nd to January 1st, 2011.