Downtime Interview w/ Julien Langedorff

Artist workspace

1) Location?  Paris, France 🇫🇷

2) Years collaging? I've been working with paper cut outs collage (in the technical style of late Matisse if you wish) for more than a decade, and collaging with found print material since 2011 I think. 

3) What do you love and hate about collage?  I love the poetical and transcendental aspect of it, almost alchemical: trying to achieve beauty with often common and random material. I don't see what there is to hate with collage. 

4) Biggest influences? Dario Argento, Black Sabbath, Edvard Munch, Steven Parrino, Lord Byron, Rauschenberg, pre raphaelites, punk rock, Keith Richards. My favorite collagists are Los Angeles artist Marnie Weber and filmmaker Jean-Luc Godard.  

5) Analog Vs Digital? Exclusively analog - to me it's almost a basic rule about collaging: trying to be creative and singular with what you physically and randomly find. I'm not anti digital though. It's cool. Just not my thing. I'm a romantic i suppose. 

6) How do you spend your downtime? I work every day and have very little downtime. But I guess the usual. Walks in the park, coffee and cigarettes with my people etc. Pretty boring stuff really. 

7) Three tips for someone starting out in collage? I really have no method whatsoever so i'm not sure i'm entitled to give anyone advices. But i would say that beyond the apparent easiness of the medium, it takes a lot of work to reach a personal style, exactly like drawing or painting if not harder. Many people nowadays are into collage but i just see the same thing over and over and it's kinda depressing. I would say that it's important not to take your material for granted, and approach it with humility like it's something as neutral as a colour coming out of a tube of paint. 
 
8) Up and coming shows or projects we should know about? I'm exhibiting new paper cut outs in a group show at Topographie de l'Art / Paris (http://www.topographiedelart.fr/bruit-blanc.html). New shows lined up for 2018 in France and Belgium. 

Links:

Instagram: @julien_langendorff
Web: julienlangendorff.com

Artworks (top to bottom)

1. Old Soul (50 cm x 70 cm), paper cut outs collage on paper, 2018
2. Pageant Ghost (50 cm x 70 cm), paper cut outs collage, silver leaf, chalk on paper, 2018
3. Victory or Death (50 cm x 70 cm), paper cut outs collage, silver leaf, graphite on paper, 2018
4. Orphan Hand  (50 cm x 70 cm), paper cut outs collage on paper, 2018
5. Soul Destroyer (50 cm x 70 cm),paper cut outs collage, acrylic on paper, 2018
6. Pawned Dawn (50 cm x 65 cm),paper cut outs collage, acrylic on paper, 2018
7. Night Scheme (50 cm x 70 cm), paper cut outs collage on paper, 2018