The art of Francis Limerat is a tentative outgoing into uncertain space which gradually, slowly, finds satisfactory co-ordinates: it's a complex interconnection which, by means of an erratic but sensitive, subtle graphism, finally resolves itself into clarity and definition.

To start with, vague cultural references may cross the visual memory: labyrinth (Cretan), mandala (indo-Tibetan), navigation chart (Polynesian), dream catcher (Amerindian)...

But these fade away and disappear, leaving only a sense of investigation into a no-man's land situated at the limits of being and consciousness where the mind goes forward, wanders off the track, gets lost, stops bewildered, lies still for a moment, then moves out again, obstinately, tirelessly.

Multiple tracks of thought making for articulation, trails of sensations in search of a syntax.

At times, it's like a biological organism which, via a careful examination of the terrain, by the successive elimination of materials, works out for itself a space in which to evolve, lays out a territory. At other times it's a surface subjected to pressure, breaking into jagged lines. At other times again, its cosmic space so charged with energy it begins to tremble, transforming itself abruptly in a series of lightning flashes.

A network of chance?

The topography of ultimate margins?

Surveying the void?

Beyond philosophical questions, outside any mythology of quest, this movement definite yet undefined, goes on and on, leaving the finest traces. Somewhere, something is being composed.

Kenneth White