Disconnected

Florent Duchesne makes concrete behave in ways it shouldn’t. Heavy forms seem caught in motion. Hard surfaces bend, fold and soften. What should feel permanent can appear strangely fragile, as though a gesture, impact or burst of energy has been stopped for a fraction of a second.

That contradiction is what draws us to Florent’s work. Influenced by Monteal’s punk, skate and underground rave cultures. The energy is in the form itself: raw, physical and slightly unpredictable. Concrete becomes less about architecture or permanence and more about tension — between force and vulnerability, control and letting go.

Florent embraces failure and accident as part of making. His background in industrial design and aircraft mechanics gives him a deep technical understanding of materials, but he doesn’t use that knowledge to eliminate unpredictability. He uses it to push the material further.

There is something exciting about watching an artist this early in his practice develop such a recognizable language. The work feels restless, as though concrete itself is trying to break out of the role we gave it.