With The other Earth, the Retour de Voyage Gallery welcomes the deeply singular universe of Jephan de Villiers, a major artist whose work has unfolded over several decades at the crossroads of sculpture and imaginary archaeology.
Born in 1940, Jephan de Villiers has patiently built a parallel world , inhabited by fragile figures, silent reliquaries, enigmatic messengers and fragments of memory. Driftwood, roots, seeds, leaves, feathers, antique papers, earth and twine become, in his hands, the remnants of an unknown civilisation, as though unearthed from a forgotten time.
The Other Earth exhibition finds at L'Isle-sur-la-Sorgue, a town shaped by water, crossings and traces of the past, a particularly resonant setting and a natural place of welcome.
A journey through fragile worlds
The exhibition brings together a selection ofrecent and historical works in which the great figures of Jephan de Villiers’ inner universe reappear : The Sea Angels and Watchers at the Edge of the World, The Lost Ones at the Edge of the World, The Messengers, The Fragments of Memory and The Bearer of the Mist Eater.
These titles themselves act as poetic thresholds. They open mental landscapes rather than describe objects.
The towering masts of the Sea Angels rise through the space like silent sentinels. Winged figures, suspended fragments and wall reliquaries compose a kind of sensitive cartography in which each element seems to carry the trace of a vanished story.
Some works appear as though they have survived an ancient catastrophe. Others feel like the final witnesses of a forgotten people. Yet, nothing here is mournful. On the contrary, everything speaks of persistence, transmission and a delicate form of resilience.
Even the most modest works, a box containing a handful of pine cones (Clouds), a fragment of root (Shadows and Murmurs), a few silhouettes gathered in silence, possess a striking presence. In Jephan de Villiers’ world, a fragment of bark can suddenly take on the gravity of a sacred relic.
The other Earth, an exhibition by Jephan De Villiers
The title of the exhibition acts as a key.
This « other earth » is neither a distant land nor a spectacular fiction. Rather, it evokes an inner territory, a buried memory, a geography of the sensitive world that the artist reveals through his assemblages.
The work of Jephan de Villiers invites us to slow down. To look differently at what, usually, escapes our attention : a twig, a feather, a root, a trace.
In a world saturated with images and speed, this exhibition offers something rare : the experience of an inhabited silence.
The works call for a slow, almost meditative gaze. The visitor becomes a traveller in turn, moving through this archipelago of fragile memories as one might explore the remains of an unknown civilisation… or perhaps one forgotten within ourselves.
A particular resonance to Retour De Voyage
Presenting The Other Earth at Retour De Voyage Gallery carries a particular resonance. The very identity of the place, dedicated to travel, crossings, stories and dialogues between cultures, naturally enters into conversation with the universe of Jephan de Villiers The other Earth at Retour De Voyage Gallery carries a particular resonance. The very identity of the place, dedicated to travel, crossings, stories and dialogues between cultures, naturally enters into conversation with the universe of Jephan de Villiers.
Here, travel is not exotic. It is inward.
It unfolds through humble materials, traces of living matter, buried memories and that unsettling feeling that these works had always existed somewhere before we encountered them.
Through this exhibition, Retour De Voyage offers less a discovery than an immersion : into aworld suspended between memory, nature and poetry, where every fragment seems to carry the discreet voice of an ancient humanity.
And perhaps, too, the echo of our own fragility.
Jephan de Villiers
The other Earth
Galerie Retour de Voyage
L’Isle-sur-la-Sorgue
Exhibition from 29 to 5 July 2026
Opening Thursday 4 June 2026, from 6 p.m., in the presence of the artist.