Abraham Poincheval is an insatiable explorer constantly pushing the boundaries of human experience as well as his own body. Whether by crossing the Alps while pushing a capsule he used as his shelter like Sisyphus, or by enclosing himself for a week in a rock or inside a taxidermy bear, his expeditions—itinerant or static—demand total mental and physical commitment, yet exhibiting a sense of humor and absurd.

Filmed by drones above the Gabonese landscape of Central Africa, Walk on Clouds, 2019, finds Poincheval suspended from a hot air balloon, hiking and embarking on an ethereal journey through the dawn sky. The serenity depicted in the video belies weeks of training the artist took at the Lyon Opera, where Poincheval mastered his aerial postures and also the technical complexities of the performance. “With a single step,” he describes, “you are embraced by this mass of warm air,” moving in the mist, losing all sense of horizontal and vertical, as if in the mist of consciousness. The work underscores the intricate relationship between humans and the natural world, a theme Poincheval consistently explores in his work.

Poincheval has exhibited internationally, notably at the 15th Lyon Contemporary Art Biennale. Selected solo exhibitions include Palais de Tokyo (2017, Paris, France), Musée de la Chasse et de la Nature (France), MAC VAL (Vitry-sur-Seine, France), and FRAC Paca (Marseille, France). His works are in the collections of prestigious institutions like the Museum Voorlinden (Wassenaar, Netherlands) and the Centre National des Arts Plastiques - CNAP (Paris, France), among others.