Bingo

Tommy Lecot plays with randomness and luck. The chance encounter, any unforeseen coincidence he might gather in his open arms as he makes his way. Beginning with an astute absence of assumptions, using found objects, various types of wood, and with imagery from a multiplicity of sources, Lecot’s spare compositions attempt to arrange and assemble forms in a manner that allows him to interrogate reality. In our increasingly controlling society, where haphazardness has become almost obsolete,Lecot wonders what place we allow for luck. In revisiting the space-time interval of all possibilities, he reverses the points of entry and arrival so as to favour the unforeseen encounter and create surprise. Bingo, the title of his solo exhibit, aims to describe the satisfactions of success as well as the uncertainty that accompanies it. If games of chance by definition imply putting ourselves at risk, exposing us to failure, they first stimulate and awaken our capacity for pleasure. Like the Dadaists who attempted to escape reason and intention through the use of techniques like the exquisite corpse and automatic writing, and with the more contemporary methods of Fishli/Weiss, who explored ways of putting things in an uncertain state of balance, Lecot pairs words and forms in order to create ephemeral equilibria. Pifomètre, made of strips of oak and plywood a meter long and a drawing of a nose, explores the notion of approximation, the intuitive feelings that sometimes lead us to act in ways that allow us to succeed with flair, with no apparent control over the success of the action. It is in this state of suspension that Lecot attempts to compose the rule of his game. The titles of some works La vie de château and L’embarras du choix redirect common expressions which, associated with the objects,testify ironically to a certain taste for risk taking. In the new studio-brewery Pain Liquide, founded by Simon Nicaise in 2022, Lecot has been invited to present his recent work and imagine drinking a beer in collective celebration. A place for life and creation, this venue gathers yeast and other living organisms for a chance to break the liquid bread and, on the upper level, to welcome us to a space with no clear destination, although it will be opened punctually for this exhibition.