Baptiste Laurent - Carrousel Clairon, 2025, XXXL, oil on canvas

Carrousel Clairon, 400x280cm, oil on canvas,
Signed on the reverse. Sold unframed and shipped rolled.

The centrepiece of the show : Welcome to the Circus, Carrousel Clairon stands as the exhibition’s visual and symbolic heart. Through its monumental presence and theatricality, the work brings together the tensions that run throughout Baptiste Laurent’s project: war, hunting, national identity and the tragicomedy of the contemporary world.
Using the imagery of the carousel and the circus, Laurent satirises the society of spectacle, transforming culture, politics and the construction of identity into a carnival where celebration and tragedy, humour and grotesque imagery, dreams of glory and disillusionment collide. Figures and symbols unfold within a densely layered universe, where references to history, colonial memory and childhood mythologies confront the anxieties of the present.
As the protagonist of the exhibition, Carrousel Clairon does more than illustrate its themes: it embodies its entire dramaturgy. The work gives form to a dizzying cycle in which past and present, the intimate and the collective, melancholy and celebration become entangled. Its monumental presence commands the viewer’s attention, creating an experience that is both fascinating and unsettling. Beneath the appearance of entertainment, the painting becomes a stage on which the tragedy of the contemporary world unfolds."} } }`? Wait. I included extraneous. Let's fix. The JSON must have exactly one key. Here's corrected.} )? No. Provide final.} Let's output correctly.