Yohann Quëland de Saint-Pern’s work questions the object, the body, the discourse and the notion of public space, as well as the power relationships at play within their various incarnations. Well-organised constructions and standardised compositions are all archetypes designed as conveyors of efficiency for the economy, production and reproduction, the circulation of people and goods, and as injunctions to adapt, therefore impacting our imagination. Statements, archives, images and protocolar objects circulate from piece to piece in works that are often “expandable”, and echo the political, economic and social histories and realities of territories impacted by post- or neo-colonialism. The works that stem from the artist’s research “highlights the parties involved” and in doing so topple the invisible burdens they carry. For Yohann Quëland de Saint-Pern, to create is to “invent the tools needed to open up perspectives and cultivate one’s territory like a field of new possibilities”.

Leïla Quillacq, excerpt from a text and interview with the artist, for documents d’artistes La Réunion, 2020.