Gilles Aillaud probably would have liked to be a philosopher. But this French painter, set designer and author - who over the years collaborated with important intellectuals of his generation: from Eduardo Arroyo to Antonio Recalcati, from Klaus Michael Grüber to Giorgio Strehler - was above all a "political animal". This definition, perhaps superficial, certainly effective, was in fact chosen by the Center Pompidou to give the title to this exhibition dedicated to the figurative art of Aillaud. The exhibition follows the existential path of this artist, who was president of the hyper-politicized Salon de la Jeune Peinture in 1964 heralding a season of political commitment that characterizes the entire next twenty years and which will be followed by his departure for the African continent and Kenya in 1988. Themes that take shape in the works on display, where the animals bear witness to Aillaud's environmentalist and ecological concerns, but are also a mirror of a condition where man is invisible but at the same time strongly present.
