The five works presented in the exhibition Subfaciem (the Latin translation of the name of the room, “Sous-face 37”) by Cécile Beau have been specifically produced embodying the result of research conducted by the artist, focusing on the notion of things subterranean. In fact the space here is atypical, open to the outside while appearing to be buried in the depths of the building. Glacial concretions (Sablier), earthquakes (Sillage), trees growing through the middle (L’Envers), fossilized horizon lines (Fodere) and wind blowing freely (Erosio) enter into dialogue to offer the visitor a true sensory experience. Cécile Beau is the winner of the 2011 Prix Découverte of the Friends of the Palais de Tokyo.

Cécile Beau is primarily interested in the notion of territory or landscape as mental appropriation of a place, as a tool to reach somewhere beyond the visible. Landscapes from which all human presence has disappeared or where it has perhaps never existed, works of austere poetry. She offers real sensory experiences that immerse us in universes that are generally realistic, but comprise an added fictional aspect that endows them with all their poetry. Vegetable or mineral materials are thus deployed in works whose mysterious titles are often borrowed from foreign languages. As in a waking dream, a whole illusionistic Méliès-style apparatus is hidden behind works of disturbing beauty. The artist creates hybrid, enigmatic works that generate ghostly atmospheres.