Nicolas Durand

French artist Nicolas Durand focuses primarily on sculpture, but also makes drawings, photographs and video. He is fascinated by questions of volume and architectural space. When Durand discovered the Zwalm region, the neatly tended houses and gardens depicting a continuous show of care by the owners struck him. In these gardens, he saw that many of the lawn chairs are always in pairs, and always facing the most beautiful part of the landscape. Those lawn chairs, clearly intended for the couple that lived there, were always empty. For the artist this image became symbol for love and peace.

In a graveyard, you see no corpses, but they are there. Men and women lie side by side united after death. In the cemetery of Paulatem, Durand placed two chairs made of blue freestone, facing the countryside. This project is for Durand a reflection on the passing of time, the death that approaches and the absence that death brings.