Contrapposto Sculpture

The works of Nicolas Les are a synthesis of the artist's research into the human body and its contemporary reconfigured form. Both the characters and sculptures outline a vision of expressions of the new man, in which the limits of corporeality have been overcome by the formation of the symbolic relationship with technology. In an impending post biological, post organic, post evolutionist and post human era, the artist describes an intuitive and visionary record of a world that no longer seems to be cut from a parallel universe of science fiction but is, rather, a current reality in the making. In this way the artist references the writings of French anthropologist David le Breton. The metamorphosis of the body is gradually revealed in stages throughout the exhibition, from the multiplication of anatomical features to figurative reconstruction, as seen in PANOPTIKUM and BOY. The artist develops a hybrid through his exploration of the organic with technology through the incorporation of prefabricated industrial objects. Thus the barrier between the human and the artificial, the carnal and the technical, the body and design is eliminated, as in the film 'Crash' directed by David Cronenberg, 1996. The structure of the human body is revisited with the possibility of being modified and reconstructed through inversions, additions or prosthetics. Sockets, which form the basis of the workings, become an integral part of the narrative- a technological extension of the human. In METAFORM, the illusion of artificial intelligence in the digitalized body, is realised via the intermedium of computer keys, one on top of another, over the surface of sections of the brain, sending information to the post human being directly. The artist exposes the fragility of this fusion between the organic and the technical, without going to one extreme or the other. The joining and balance of these two elements was deliberately orchestrated in a meticulous way. It is a melange that happens at a visual level. The technological subsumes the organic as the absorption of the technical is not quite complete. The force of the organic form ( BIRTH, CONTRAPPORTO, MIRROR) its beauty and tactile magnetism, which was achieved through the manual handling of the materials rather than using modelling tools, is tempered through an articulation of technology.