Tartu Estonia

« Selge ja sogane-Clear and fuzzy »

Thomas Mocaër is a young French artist whose work focuses on the concept of memory. During his residency in Tartu he has been experimenting with different materials and techniques in the Printing and the Paper Museum. His surroundings have always been the basis of his work and this time the fragmented pictures depict people working and visiting the museums. The memories of the time spent in Tartu can been seen visually in the handmade paper, the fragmented pictures and stories behind them. This project was made in cooperation with the Estonian Printing Museum, the Paper Museum, Tartu Center for Creative Industries, City of Tartu and Youth in Action.

« During my one month residency in the printing and the paper museum I have observed the functioning of this unusual place, the people who work there, those who are just passing through.

I was interested in what is created in this place, and those who create it.It turns out that there is always something to discover, someone to meet or new techniques to experiment.I therefore chose to retranscribe this experience through a recurring theme in my work which is the retranscription of memories and mental images.

It turns out that this place was ideal for this experiment. Constant changes and multidisciplinary were the main sources of inspiration.It results in fragmented images, partial memories, sometimes accurate, sometimes blurred.I decided to combine photography and drawing for the same reasons, the ambiguity of memory. It also seemed important to take advantage of the printing and paper museum resources, which is why the photos are printed using an unconventional technical result of experiments and teamwork.

The prints were also conducted on a paper designed on site. »