FOLON: Agency of Imaginary Journeys
Saturday, July 13 -Monday, September 23, 2024

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Prologue: The Journey Begins
Drawings
Guided by the German architect Ludwig Mies van der Rohe’s maxim“Less is more” which he encountered during his student years,
Folon’s quest to create a rich world using only black and whitestarted. During the five years after moving to Paris, he devoted
himself drawing every day, as if to store his discoveries and ideas
through ordinary life. By sending some of his works to the publishers
in New York, he seize the opportunity for his artistic success.
In Folon’s imaginary world ordinary trivial things are brought to life,
for example, tires transformed into lemon, balloons, or planets.
Folon's drawings easily leap over our preconceptions of reality andgive us a new perspective. According to Folon, an air of “whitehumour” rather than black humour lies in the world where scissors
and hooks moving freely on a white sheet of paper. And this senseof humour and the view towards reality is also evident in his later
colourful works. We may say that drawings are Folon’s starting point
since they shaped his form of expression and gained worldwidesuccess.

Sculptures
From the latter half of the 1980s, Folon’s imagination spreads tothree dimensional works. First, he was inspired by the tribal arts by
the Native Americans and the Africans, then he started to create
objects by combining different type of materials such as, woodblocks, nails, screws, or even things found in the flea market.
Through his imagination, he tried to create new stories by listening
to the voices of each materials. In 1990 his retrospective was heldat the Metropolitan Museum, he reflected his own two dimensional
works and had a chance to see the sculptures exhibited in themuseum. Inspired by this experience, Folon got into making
sculptures from then on. With the encouragement of his sculptor
friends like Cesar [1921-1998], his materials changed into bronzeand stone.
Folon brings life to inorganic things such as spoon, fork, pretzels
and propellers, and make them into human like figures full ofcharacter. Such sculptures are reminiscent of Surrealism, yetsomehow familiar.

Little Hatted Man
Two dot for eyes, straight line for a mouth, this man is completely
covered with a big coat and a hat, as if to avoid depicting details.
Reminiscent of figures painted in Rene Magritte’s [1898–1967]
paintings or a character in the movies of Charlie Chaplin [18891977], this man, either big or small, appears here and there in
Folon’s drawings, watercolours, posters, or in sculptures,
sometimes in solitude wandering alone, or in multitude, in a form of
dehumanized clockwork machine, or as a life-size bronze, with anindividual presence. Because of its simplicity, anyone can overlap
themselves to this man. Guided by this man being a “no-body” whichallowing him to do anything, we can even fly.

Chapter 1: This Way, That Way, or Some Other Way?
Arrow
Arrows appears frequently in Folon’s works. Folon said that thetheme came up to him when he was trying to pass the time during

journeys between Paris and Brussels. He counted all the signs witharrows on them and ended up with a total of 1,268. He also took
photographs of reality with flooding images of arrows.
Sharp arrows popping up here and there, winding like a maze,coiling around buildings like snakes, confuse people living in thegreat maze, cities. On the other hand, do the vase standing against
the horizon [no. 291] or the arrows popping out of the figure's head
are there only to confuse us? Those arrows may be showing us the
freedom to stop and imagine amongst the numerous arrows, andthe possibility of making our own free choices.

CityFrom Brussels to Paris and then to New York, Folon's observationsof the real world led him naturally to the theme of the city. Born froma rebellion against the study of architecture, Folon's unnamed city
is lined with inorganic, skyscraper-like buildings, even the steam is
made of hard brick. And the little humans thrown into the city are
confused by the arrows and signs pointing in every direction, leaving
them with nowhere to go. The spaces of disappointment andalienation seem to be pervaded by the 'urban disease' of modern
human, who have been swallowed up by a rapidly changing
civilisation and have lost their humanity. At the same time, they may
be a warning towards the madness of human itself, which has lost
harmony with nature and created a uniform and solitary world.
However, has Folon given up hope for humans? The white door
found in the space that goes round in circles, and mild sunlightilluminating the maze, seems like a margin which Folon left us toimagine the future and to find the key to solve the maze which is ahuge “?”.

Chapter 2: What Do You Hear?
Watercolours
Folon, who was drawing only in black and white, began to acquirecolour after he met a French artist Collette Portal [1936-] who hemarries in 1961. From around 1964 to the early 1970s, Folon begins
to work on coloured ink. Thus he was awaken by the power of colour
and encounters watercolour and produces natural and soft colouring
expressions. Through his search of expression using light andtransparency, Folon recounted that he was inspired by William
Turner’s [1775-1851] watercolour paintings. The colours, which
mingled like living creatures, captured Folon's imagination andenriched the image world on paper.
Giorgio Soavi [1923-2008] of the Italian office machine
manufacturer Olivetti was one of the first to realise the appeal ofFolon's watercolours. He assigned Folon to create many artworks
such as illustration for The Metamorphosis by Franz Kafka, andRay Bradbury’s The Martian Chronicles. If drawing was the starting
point of Folon's expression and career, it was his watercolour works
that made them more certain.

Ecology
Folon was strongly interested in environmental and social issues
and raised questions using varitety of media such as watercolours,
coloured ink, and even animations. As he said he only takes jobs
that only have a theme that moves him, to work with the proenvironmental organization Greenpeace which was found becauseof the campaign against nuclear testing, must have been an
important opportunity. In Deep deep trouble [no. 113], torpedoes
instead of fish swim in a beautiful ocean. Also Folon published aportfolio La Mort d’un arbre (The Death of a tree) warning
deforestation. Folon attracts people by the calm colouring, at thesame time opens the way for people not to turn away but to look at
the severe reality. Folon’s soft but honest way of communication
brings the distance closer between human and nature. Also hemight be entrusting us hope and responsibility as humans who live
the world now.

War
Folon appeals not to turn away but to imagine the cruelty in thetheme of war. In his drawings, sunlight and bird in a cage istransformed into missiles and dove which is a symbol for peacecarries cartridge belts with a series of missiles. Facing thosemisalignments of images, we may stop and frown. By the direct
symbols of Nazi and Cold War, and extensive use of vivid vermilionand disturbing staining of watercolors, we can see Folon’s stance ofopenly criticizing the consequences of war and its violence. War is
not a pipe dream, it is caused by someone, at a certain place. Folon,
who reflected the absurdities of this world in his works, was awareof the repercussions his works would cause in the world, and wasprepared to accept the contradictions and absurdities of the times
with sincerity. And imagining the war still occurring in the future, hesays, “A drawing is useless; it’s like a tree or a flower, it’s useless.
But without trees and without flowers, we would all be dead.”Space
Astronomical observation scene frequently appears in Folon’sworks. With a never-ending curiosity towards unknown planets
beyond the universe, what do people see through a telescope? The
unknown world where Folon depicts, surprisingly has a lot incommon with the world in which we live. On the contrary, there aresome drawings that makes us think that the planet people areobserving is actually the earth, if you look closely. In 1987, Folon
illustrated Ray Bradbury’s Martian Chronical. Moved by its richvisuality and lyricism, as well as its cynical view of the reality of thestory which is about humans who moved to Mars, Folon personallyoffered to illustrate the book to the author.
Today, going to space is becoming a familiar reality, and ourimagination go beyond the planets. At the same time, Folon seems
to question us how we should live as living organisms that make up
this interconnected universe.

Chapter 3: What Should We Talk About?
Universal Declaration of Human Rights

Yorker, and Time. His early works depicting city flooded with signs
and brick buildings may seem to connect the imagery of New York,the symbol of new city.
Cover of magazines, the media that are delivered to 8 million people
worldwide on the same day, will be etched in the memory of those
who see, even they are burnt in fireplace on the next day. The ideaof creating a simple yet impactful design that could be understoodworldwide led to the creation of posters.

Posters
For Folon who aimed to create a “open painting” which theinterpretation is open freely to the viewer, like the works of GiorgioMorandi [1890-1964] and Paul Klee [1879-1940], posters, thatallows to appeal directly to a large number of unspecified people,
were a media that he was meant to meat.
From Olivetti’s poster for a typewriter [no. 200], movie which he also
appears in [no. 210], 1996 winter Paralympics [no.216], to world
peace appeal poster of Amnesty International [no. 220], Folon
created more than 600 posters through his life. We can instantly
recognize them as Folon’s works when we find familiar motifs likearrows, giant eye, and little man in the hat. These symbols allow us
to enter Folon’s poetic world and open the doors to our imagination.

Epilogue: Where Do We Go from Here?
HorizonFrom the point he set his studio in Burcy in France in 1968, he began
to depict horizon as if inspired by the land. The sun or the giant eye
over the horizon which leads our view and thoughts towards far
away, may be the existence that is beyond reach, or whom look over
us with great love, or maybe a mirror that reflects ourselves.
Also it is said that the time he spent in Monaco from 1985 inspiredhim the ocean horizon and ship. In the series of works titled Voyage[no. 271–273], he depicted ship on the horizon using oil paints
directly painted on wood blocks and pasted paper and cloth. By
assembling readily available materials, it is as if Folon is sublimating
his imagination born in a private space into artworks. Moreover, inwatercolour paintings, the ship no longer belongs to Folon alone. A
single ship floating alone on the horizon become a vehicle for eachof us, leading us on a free journey beyond the painting, along withthe solitude of being thrown into a magnificent world.

In December 1948, the Universal Declaration of Human Rights wasadopted, officially recognizing the fundamental human rights of all
people for the first time in the world. In 1988, Amnesty International
decided to publish a book of UDHR for its 40th anniversary andasked Folon to illustrate each article.

Bird

What Folon found appealing about illustrating books was not that hewanted to represent poetry as it was, but rather that it allowed him
to expand his imagination in new ways. Also he thought that nobodyreads the UDHR and declarations do not create imagination.
However Folon tried to produce 19 watercolour illustrations out of
30 articles. Most of them symbolically represented the world that still
exists in reality, where rights and freedoms are neglected. By using
expressions that could be interpreted as a kind of accusation, Folon
may have tried to draw attention to the unfulfilled declaration andfocus our attention on the future we should envision.

It is the wind that brings us on our journey of freedom. It may be agust of wind that pulls us into a whirlpool of arrows, or a wind thatpush forward birds and ship beyond horizon. These images such asa tightrope walker (reminiscent of street performer Philippe Petit[1949-]) walks through the air while maintaining exquisite balance[no. 130], and the little man in the hat observing stars and planetsand even reaching the space makes us feel the sense of zero gravity.

Magazines
Folon moved to Paris from Brussels at the age of 21 and gradually
gained jobs, he send some of his works to several publishers in New
York aiming for more success. Then one publisher bought fourworks. Using this as a foothold, from the late 1950s, he illustrated
the cover of many magazines such as, Horizon, Esquire, The New

Birds were Folon’s admiration. A little figure with colourful wings
rising in the work Arcangelo [no. 287] which has his name depictedon the top, may be the artist himself who dreamed to become a bird.

Folon’s words, “I have always wanted to fly freely, to talk to the wind
and the sky” are also an expression of his gaze toward the unknown
world of space and the yet-to-be-seen future. Together with Folon’s
birds and the little man in the hat, rather than being swallowed upby the wind, we can use our feet and play with and ride the wind,over the horizon, and head toward our own journeys in life.