Janusz Stega

Born in Krakow (Poland) in 1958, Janusz Stega lives and works in Lille. Trained at the École des Beaux arts de Tourcoing, Janusz Stega discovered in 1975 the existence of rubber rolls decorated with decorative motifs, used by house painters in his native country to create the illusion of wallpaper, which was very expensive at the time. Shortly afterwards, he systematically used these tools in his paintings and photographs: in both cases, a play is established between the motif created by the passage of the roller (decorative in nature) and the story it conceals. For him, these decorative motifs have become the letters of an indecipherable text, the only evidence of a bygone era.