Patrice Pantin (b.1963) lives and works in Pantin (near Paris, France).

He has been developing works using cloth for around 20 years. Pantin's work from the 90s features some black material elements directly transfixed on walls. This is called The Cistercians series: four black cloths aligned at eye level, reminiscent of the beautiful but austere hoods worn by monks. He then used the cuttings to develop a kind of hieratic writing, a particular alphabet which once pinned to the wall projects a shadow and appears divided. These are the 14 punishments.

Pantin questions the painting's foundations by dissecting it; he calls it the Corpus Delicti. The cloth is for him the original base of any pictorial approach. He skins, cuts, spreads, dismantles; some of his works will even feature only one pinned thread: The Accomplices.

 Having pressed the thread, he changes everything. With a cutter, he draws series of in-depth lines and hems this new medium. A weft appears, and gentle, undulant waves are made iridescent by the light. But the "textile memory" is there, allowing some lines to appear as if floating. Some "thread-ends" are suspended in a white space: The Points.

 Then the size is increased. The network spreads over the large base. He uses fire. He sets his papers on fire and warms them with a blowtorch. The procedure is akin to the auto-da-fé. The Constellations.

 In his recent works; he first begins by using those papers which he did not crease, which he did not curl up in a ball nor unfold. The illusion of the "sub-fold" and the rustle of materials is terminated. Here the surface cracks. Again, the work is damaged, it is the "Territory of the Painting" which cracks: The Military Drawings.

This artist has received the kind support of PSA Insurance Ltd. for their Mdina Biennale project.