Paul Loubet at Crac Occitanie

Artist: Paul Loubet

Exhibition title: 4X eXplore eXpand eXploit eXterminate

Curated by: Marie Cozette

Venue: Crac Occitanie, Sète, France

Date: July 2, 2022 – January 8, 2023

Photography: all images copyright and courtesy of the artist and Crac Occitanie

Paul Loubet is a prolific all-rounder who spreads his painter vocabulary all over the place: canvases, murals, fanzines, objects, illustrations, flyers, installations in public space… His work draws from a variety of aesthetics and cultural references ranging from geometric abstraction to CGI, from history painting to video games by way of graffiti, urban cultures and science fiction.

For several years he has been more particularly exploring cartographic representations, blueprints, and aerial views, whether in the form of old maps or through new image types like those produced by drones. Paul Loubet is inspired by digital images, to which he applies an elementary rendering while using artisanal methods of production. For example, he paints on floppy discs, creates wooden drones, makes video game consoles out of backlit plexiglas*, in a sense reheating the disincarnate world of robotics and computer technology through a manual rendering, a DIY aesthetic rooted in minimal art no less than in naïve art.

The exhibition that the Crac Occitanie is dedicating to his work, presented upstairs, follows his 2021 residency at the Villa Médicis as part of the prize put in place by the Occitanie region in partnership with the French Academy in Rome.

In that context, Paul Loubet conducted research into Civilization II, a strategy and conquest game that consists in creating an empire, by means of nothing less than the destruction of all surrounding others. Civilization II belongs to a broader family of “4X” games (eXplore eXpand eXploit eXterminate). Imperialism and cultural domination, whose final stage would be extermination, are the main thrusts of these games, which reflect a long history of civilizations at their most brutal.
Alongside analysis of the game, Paul Loubet took advantage of his residency to study the iconographic resources of the Vatican’s “Galleria delle carte geografiche”, a 120-metrelong gallery painted by Ignazio Danti between 1580 and 1585, which presents obvious analogies with the isometric views of the game Age of Empires. In the course of his research, Paul Loubet has unearthed the script of a game of the 1990s, the visual inspiration for a series of new paintings.

A large tryptic in the form of an altarpiece represents the end game, namely a world map that sees Rome dominating all other civilisations. Like a game archaeologist—and as if to better conjure up the horror—the artist confronts us with a depiction of the end of the world: the map produced sets out past conquests and destructions, while projecting us into a dystopian future, where a single culture reigns.
From 1990s video games, the artist has preserved the pixelated visual identity, a simple and flat colour palette, and a system of representation with no depth or base line. Across from this tryptic, five canvases zoom in on five of the game’s key dates. If the format that Paul Loubet revisits here refers to historical and religious painting, the deployed motifs stem from mass culture and entertainment as embodied by video games. Shifting our perspective on these different worlds, the artist radically and thoroughly decompartmentalises them.

-Marie Cozette

View of the exhibition 4X eXplore eXpand eXploit eXterminate, Paul Loubet, Crac Occitanie in Sète, 2022. Photograph © Yohann Gozard

View of the exhibition 4X eXplore eXpand eXploit eXterminate, Paul Loubet, Crac Occitanie in Sète, 2022. ju_finis.sav. The Democratic Commonwealth of Rome, 2022, front part of the triptych: acrylic, offset ink and oil on canvas, back part of the triptych: glycero and offset ink on aluminum, 195 x 560 x 3.5 cm. Photograph © Yohann Gozard

View of the exhibition 4X eXplore eXpand eXploit eXterminate, Paul Loubet, Crac Occitanie in Sète, 2022. Top: 2009 AD. The Lauching of the R.S.S. Julius Caesar Destination: Alpha Centauri, 2022. Bottom: 1904 AD. The Romans Walk on the Moon, 2022, Acrylic, offset ink and oil on canvas, iron frame, 195 x 140 x 3.5 cm each. Photograph © Yohann Gozard

View of the exhibition 4X eXplore eXpand eXploit eXterminate, Paul Loubet, Crac Occitanie in Sète, 2022. The 9 Continents, 2022, spray, glycero, oil on 9 aluminum plates, 20 x 20 cm. Photograph © Yohann Gozard.

View of the exhibition 4X eXplore eXpand eXploit eXterminate, Paul Loubet, Crac Occitanie in Sète, 2022. Resource Maps, 2022, 5 toner prints and CNC drawings on paper, 9 x 7 cm, Falco Metal support. Photograph © Yohann Gozard

View of the exhibition 4X eXplore eXpand eXploit eXterminate, Paul Loubet, Crac Occitanie in Sète, 2022. Right: 1440 AD. First Circumnavigation of the World by the Admiral Agrippa, 2022. Front view: 4000 BC The Foundation of Rome, 2022, acrylic, offset ink and oil on canvas, iron frame, 195 x 140 x 3.5 cm (each canvas). Photograph © Yohann Gozard.

View of the exhibition 4X eXplore eXpand eXploit eXterminate, Paul Loubet, Crac Occitanie in Sète, 2022. 350 BC. First Contact with Carthage, 2022, acrylic, offset ink and oil on canvas, iron frame, 195 x 140 x 3.5 cm. Photograph © Yohann Gozard.

Paul Loubet, The launch of the R.S.S. Julius Caeser Destination: Alpha Centauri, 2022. Acrylic, offset ink, oil and chalk on canvas, 195x140cm. ©Paul Loubet.

Paul Loubet, Premier tour du monde de l’amiral Agrippa, 2022. Acrylique, encre offset, huile et craie grasse sur toile, 195x140cm ©Paul Loubet