Limbo Between Waking and Dreaming: David Douard and “WAK’E S’” at Konrad Fischer Galerie

The fleeting moment when we open and close our eyes marks an indeterminate threshold where the mind loosens its grip on the external world. Neither fully awake nor entirely asleep, this permeable space allows mental constructs to seep outward while the outside world subtly shapes perception from within. Hosting French artist David Douard’s third solo show at the gallery from September 4, 2026, to January 30, 2027, Konrad Fischer Galerie in Düsseldorf invites viewers into precisely this suspended universe with “WAK’E S’”.

A Spatial Dialogue of Material and Form

Across the exhibition, Douard brings raw materials—wood, aluminum, and glass—together around a poetic and intimate energy. Floral contaminations, masks, and text fragments form an unbroken current circulating among the sculptures and wall pieces. Sculptural forms augmented with aluminum masks and glass spheres echo light metallic drawings and brushstrokes on canvas.

While frames around the works engage in a formal dialogue with the plinths supporting the sculptures, the overarching grid structure and wooden elements instill visual cohesion throughout the exhibition.

Psychological Traces of Digital Culture and Materialized Language

Born in Perpignan in 1983 and based in Paris, David Douard places language at the core of his practice as a fluid, malleable material. Drawing on literary, poetic, and everyday speech shaped by the digital age, the artist translates texts into sculptural spaces and physical forms.

At first glance, Douard’s installations recall transient, damaged, or eroded prosthetic structures; their surfaces bear the scars of erosion, interruptions, and writing. Though framed within the post-digital generation, rather than displaying technology or its imagery directly, he records the psychological and linguistic impact of digital networks through a sculptor’s eye.

Sculpture as a Personal Journal

“WAK’E S’” also operates on the logic of a personal journal. Douard incorporates into the works a piece of music listened to in the studio, a found object encountered on the street, or a memory lingering from a walk.

A graduate of the École nationale supérieure des Beaux-Arts de Paris, a Villa Medici fellow, and a faculty member at ENSA Paris-Cergy since 2022, the artist’s works are featured in major institutional collections such as the Centre Pompidou, Collection Pinault, and Musée d’Art Moderne de Paris. Deconstructing and reassembling core structural components of sculpture and painting—such as the plinth, frame, and line—this new presentation in Düsseldorf offers viewers a rhythmic, mental limbo.