Debut exhibition. Amandine Sacquin is a young artist from Mulhouse who finds her inspiration in the world of childhood. But make no mistake; the artist's intent is not to evoke fairy tale characters or to make us dream or hope for a better world, but rather to question this relationship with childhood, a recurring theme in the work of many artists today.

Why is this realm of childhood, this world which is supposedly a little more carefree, so present in the work of today's artists? Why is the generation of "adulescents" growing? And why are artists employing it for their own ends? Today it is common to see young women happily enjoying Chupa Chups lollypops, and little Japanese Hello Kitty characters smiling at us from countless handbags. Why remain young when becoming an adult is normally the goal? Thomas Bouvatier, a writer, has published a novel called Regression dealing with this world. "Infantile society, or rather the immense playground for which you are headed, will not be a paradise filled with cute-as-a-button cherubs: outrageous mannerism, pandemic immaturity, pusillanimous beings who are very naïve and all too perverse… eternal childhood is hell." Amandine Sacquin is thus one of these artists who use children's games and touching characters such as "Bambi" to evoke more difficult, more powerful and more disturbing subjects, as if this world was only a charade. But children need this world in order to survive. Childhood is a tender dreamtime and this is it why fascinates everyone from psychoanalysts to artists; it is an endless source of reflection which crosses the ages and permits all, but which can however be a double-edged sword since the child remains a sheltered and taboo subject.

Clémentine Chéronnet