Who should dream

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Ludovic Thiriez
Who Should Dream, 2023

Mixed media on canvas
130 × 100 cm

Here, Ludovic Thiriez unfolds a scene situated at the boundary between reality and dream, where landscape, human figures and animal presence coexist in a balance that is both fragile and enigmatic. At the center of the composition, a female figure sits at the edge of the water, her body slightly folded inward, as if absorbed in a moment of silent contemplation. Beside her stands an unexpected presence: the stylized silhouette of a penguin, almost graphic in its simplicity, introducing a strange and poetic dimension to the scene, as if the landscape itself were becoming the stage of a waking dream.

The setting is constructed in layers, oscillating between recognizable elements and deliberately unstable spaces. On the left, a monumental architectural mass interrupts the perspective and imposes itself like a silent block facing the expanse of water. Above it, a solitary tree extends its slender branches into the pink-toned sky, emphasizing the contrast between the lightness of the vegetal form and the almost mineral density of the structure beneath it. The water, dark and deep, occupies the center of the canvas and becomes a transitional space where reflections, painterly gestures and traces of material merge.

Within this aquatic surface appears another human presence, partially submerged, whose silhouette disrupts the immediate reading of the scene. Is the figure swimming, floating, or simply disappearing into the water? Thiriez deliberately leaves this question open, transforming the landscape into a mental space where the figures seem to evolve according to an inner logic rather than a fixed narrative.

The painting also plays on a subtle chromatic tension. The muted tones of water, rock and sky create a soft and slightly melancholic atmosphere, while vivid accents of yellow, suggesting vegetation or reeds, disturb the visual balance of the composition. The blue silhouette of the penguin then acts almost like an unreal visual signal, introducing an element of displacement that reinforces the dreamlike dimension of the work.

As often in Ludovic Thiriez’s painting, the scene oscillates between narrative figuration and pictorial construction. The surfaces are worked through layers, erasures, rapid gestures and graphic interventions that fragment the space while allowing fragments of narrative to emerge. The image thus seems to construct itself before the viewer’s eyes, somewhere between appearance and disappearance.

With this painting, the artist continues his exploration of a pictorial universe where nature, human figures and animals become the protagonists of silent narratives. Far from a descriptive representation of the world, Thiriez proposes here an inner landscape, almost meditative, where strangeness and softness coexist — a painting that invites the viewer to slow down and to be carried by the quiet poetry of its imagery.

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