LONDON — Théo Mercier is ready for his next act and it involves snails.
The French artist will be taking over the Mor Charpentier gallery in Paris on Saturday through Oct. 1 with his exhibition “I Swallow Your Tears.”
“The original idea was to offer travel through the human figure,” he said in a preview interview.
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Mercier has taken 15 busts from all around the world, spanning from the 13th century to present day and they’ve all been invaded by snails that the artist has carefully sculpted and painted onto each figure.
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He 3D scanned each bust to analyze the placement of the snails and then recreated the slimy snails bodies by sticking original snail shells onto them. Some of the snail bodies have been painted gold. He produced more than a 100 snails with their own unique features that will populate the gallery’s walls, floors, plinths and the busts.
“There’s a complete juxtaposition to it. You’re not supposed to find snails in a museum and I like this idea that they’re coming together in a forbidden and sacred place,” Mercier said.
“Some of the snails are there to contaminate the [busts or space], some are there to heal [the busts] and some are there to kiss [the busts],” he added.
Each of the snails have an animated element to them — in a way, they’re breathing life into the busts.
Mercier imagined that if the busts were alive and they cried or sweat, the snails would be there to drink the tears or sweat, which the artist calls “tea” for the snails.
The artist found the process to be a sensual one. He found each of the busts through auctions, some are of African masks, Greek figures and even a wooden Jesus-like sculpture. He’s interested in how the items will register with the audience.
“It’s not blasphemous, but I’m working on historical pieces and somehow I’m invading them, devouring and eating them to make them mine,” he explained.
The subject of snails stemmed from Mercier’s long fascination with history and time — snails like alligators predate back to 500 million years ago with the only thing changing are their sizes.
“I like that snails have existed for so long and they’ve kept going at their slow pace and have crossed humanity from the medieval times to now. They’ve traveled through human history and I like that they’re really, really slow, but it’s endless. Snails are one of the only animals that can only move forward, they cannot move backward — if they move backward, they go back into their shells, which is a meditative place,” he said.
Mercier has been obsessing over sculptures and busts for the last 15 years. He usually collapses or deconstructs them, but now, he’s moving into a new phase of seeing them being eaten, disappeared or digested.
“I’ve always been connected to the topic of life,” he added.
Mercier will soon be bringing life to the stage.
He was recently named as associate artist with the Ballet National de Marseille’s (La)Horde, where he will be combining “his experimentation around performance landscapes” with the “creations blending exhibition and performance,” according to the dance company.