François Lelong is a visual artist who has been working for many years with and within landscapes through sculptures and installations made with materials extracted on site and impregnated with the cultural, social, environmental and historical features of the place where he chooses to intervene. In situ collecting and observation of the landscape have contributed to a vocabulary of abstractions where lines, curves and tracks have progressively outlined a language common to natural history, archeology, history and more generally to the notion of territory.
Immersion in a natural environment has fostered a sense of proximity to the living world in general, and to the animal world in particular. This co-existence is now manifested in the workshop, where animals hold a central position.
« The coexistence of man and wild animals is first and foremost a complex system of avoidance and tensions in a given space, a big ball of yarn of worried networks that are constantly hiding, and are occasionally giving us the opportunity to pull on a string. »
Jean-Christophe Bailly, « Le versant animal » (Bayard, 2007)
Sand depositWidth : 10m
Reg Rheris, Tafilalt Sahara (Sahart Foundation) – Morocco – february 2003
Perforated porphyry slabsLength : 10m
Arte Sella, Sella valley, Trentino – Italy – july 2008
Barked pine sectionsLength : 8m
Sunset Lake, CWES (Central Wisconsin environmental station) / University of Wisconsin, Stevens Point – USA – october/november 2005
Barked larch sectionsLength : 7m
Meymac forest school, Corrèze – France – winter 2009/spring 2010
2021 Grant for « Therianthropes », DRAC / Direction régionale des Affaires Culturelles Nouvelle-Aquitaine (Ministry of Culture, France)
2019
« Fragments », an exhibition produced by Pays d’art et d’histoire Monts et Barrages, Eymoutiers town hall (France).
Residency and solo exhibition at Skriðuklaustur, Cultural and historic centre / Gunnar Gunnarsson Institute (Fljótsdalur, Iceland).
2018
« Hreindýradraugur / The reindeer ghost »
Solo exhibition at Húsavík museum (Iceland).
Invited artist by the philosopher Philippe Grosos to the conference :
« A different time, a different place: prehistorians, historians, ethnologists and philosophers in the presence of prehistoric works ».
Poitiers University and Sainte-Croix Museum (France).
(Poitiers University / Paris 3 – Sorbonne Nouvelle University / Frobenius Institute, Frankfurt).
2017
Stevens Point Sculpture Park and University of Wisconsin (USA).
Safnahúsið residency, Húsavík museum (Iceland).
2016
Residency at Fjúk Arts Center, Húsavík (Iceland).
Associate artist, Les Ateliers de la Halle, Arras (France).
2014 Fragments #1, bookstore gallery Passe-temps, Eymoutiers (France).
2011
Hybrides, Deyrolle, Paris (France).
Décomposer/recomposer, Insects City, Nedde (France).
Limousin regional cultural found supporting the new artist studio.
2010 Meymac forest school (France).
2009 Hybrides, Malga Costa (Arte Sella), Borgo Valsugana (Italie).
2008 Arte Sella, Borgo Valsugana (Italy).
2007
Jaujac volcano (France).
Arte Sella, Borgo Valsugana (Italy).
2006
Luleå winter biennial, Luleå (Sweden).
« Etangs d'art », Brocéliande country (France).
2005
Rieulay slag heap museum (France).
Edna Carlsten gallery, university of Wisconsin, Stevens Point (USA).
Central Wisconsin environmental station, Stevens Point (USA).
2004
Asni gallery, Addis Abeba (Ethiopia).
Aubry castle (France).
Luleå winter biennial, Luleå (Sweden).
Geumgang nature art biennial, Gong Ju (South Korea).
20 installations on the frontier territory France /Belgium of the Scarpe – Escaut natural regional park (France).
TGD4 workshop (Tambacounda – Geneva – Dakar), Tambacounda (Senegal).
2003
BNP Paribas Private bank center, La Madeleine (France).
« Le vent des forêts », Lahaymeix (France).
Arte Sella, Borgo Valsugana (Italy).
High plateaus and Awash valley, Asni gallery (Ethiopia).
2002
MDG gallery, Marrakech (Morocco).
Tribute to Moby Dick of Herman Melville, Storme gallery, Lille (France).
Grandouet church (France).
« Parcours croisés », Cambremer (France).
2000, 2001, 2002 Sahart foundation, Tafilalt Sahara (Morocco).
1999 Gärten der sinne, Gehren (Germany).
Commandes et collections
BNP Paribas, La Madeleine (France).
Scarpe – Escaut natural regional park (France).
Vilogia headquarters (ex CMH Group), Villeneuve d’Ascq (France).