Attracted by the melancholy of neglected places, natural or industrial, Michaël Nicolaï likes to let himself be carried away by the nostalgia they exude. Recalling the stories of retired workers when he used to go fishing as a child along the Meuse with his Italian grandfather , he sets the scene with laborious machines, inscribing them in flat tones, esseulées sur une toile dont la palette réduit à quelques tons uniques. Stylization, shapes and contours produce the effect of a collage vinyl, halfway between tattoo and decalcomania, where acrylic paint is not without contributing to the polished effect. At , Michaël Nicolaï’s painting is in line with the renewed pop image , which is influenced by contemporary advertising and graphic design , and produces archetypal images with a powerful signage. Following the purchase of a first work in 2011, SPACE invited Michaël Nicolaï to work on the SPAC to highlight the influence of the silhouette of the blast furnaces on the shape of the sculpture. (Cécilia Bezzan)