Laurent Durrey peels, tears, and collects posters gathered during his travels across Europe and beyond. His gesture is quick and methodical, his eye sharp and discerning as he fragments, lacerates, and reorganizes images. Still bearing the marks of their urban origins, these visuals are transformed—mounted on large panels—ready to tell a new story.

Cinema, art history, pop stars, Hollywood, music, and the street are recurring references and themes. Often centered around a key figure that inspires the composition, the torn and cut fragments drift toward a different narrative space—at once pictorial and emotional. Cary Grant, the Mona Lisa, Gainsbourg, Brigitte Bardot, Captain America… These icons of popular culture, deeply imprinted in our collective memory, are easily recognizable. But beyond these familiar markers, Durrey leads us through paper labyrinths—of language, walls, wordplay, and color—guiding us through the streets of Rome, Paris, New York, or San Francisco.

Large formats enhance the visual experience and the visceral feel of “urban” emotion. The dense materiality of layered posters—pasted over and over again—also speaks of time, its passage, and its traces. These textures tell a story of their own. Quite possibly ours.

Laurent Durrey is, without question, an heir to the affichistes (poster artists) of the 1960s. His approach to reality pays tribute to those “archaeologists of the street and the present” such as Raymond Hains, Jacques Villeglé, François Dufrêne, and Mimmo Rotella.