Guillaume Martin-Taton

Guillaume Martin-Taton

Guillaume MARTIN-TATON was born in 1991. Painting has always been a part of his life, with an artist mother and an entrepreneur father in the industrial painting sector (thermocoating: deposition of powder paint by electrostatic effect, polymerizing at 200°C). During his master's studies at the Fine Arts of Montpellier, he had an exchange program at the National Art School in Sydney, where he developed his artistic universe inspired by ground markings and signage.

Modern man has drawn inspiration from nature to establish signage (aposématism: a set of mechanisms by which an animal sends a signal to potential predators to warn them of its toxicity). Our movements in urban spaces are conditioned by this code. Martin-Taton uses this characteristic as a support, thus establishing an inventory and a nomenclature of forms on which he can rely in his artistic work. His creations take on various forms: paintings, sculptures, ceramics, installations, performances. He considers ground markings and signage as a universal language understood by almost the entire population. As such, he sees it as the foundation of humanity's tribal identity.

His creative process revolves around a personal mythology, in which Manitou Marginal Lutte, his alter ego, appropriates this code to merge it with his own alphabet composed of 676 characters. Bringing together this universally understood code with this still unknown alphabet highlights the tribal values that the artist attributes to it. Black and yellow striped bands, red and white stripes, fluorescent colors, and retro-reflective materials are part of the color and material dictionary he imposes on himself to produce the artifacts related to this tribe.