JULIEN BONET - Pandemic

Technique: Promptography on Hahnemühle Fine Art paper
Size: 50 x 40 cm
Edition: 3 + 1 AP
Year: 2024-25

Signed, dated and edition numbered by the artist on a separate label.

Pandemic

A figure made of spikes, sharp as warning signals. She moves through a market, among fruit, goods, the everyday objects of life. And yet she carries the state of emergency within her. The pandemic intensifies the collective shock of those years in which the everyday—shopping, touching, breathing—became a threat.

The spikes, white and numerous, are reminiscent of microscopic images of viruses, of fences and defense mechanisms at the same time. They represent both protective armor and aggression, a symbol of the paradoxical emotions of that time: fear of contagion, longing for closeness, the sudden visibility of others as potential threats.

Historically, masks and costumes often serve a dual function in crises—they exorcise and banish evil simultaneously. But here, there is no magic, but rather a mirror: the figure reveals a world in which the invisible threat has become visible, monstrous and unmistakable.

Bonet's series Masqueraden takes up these ruptures of our time and translates them into archetypes – the pandemic body is simultaneously document and mythical creature, warning and souvenir.