Probably, René Apallec was born in the last decade of the 19th century in the French region Bolbec.

In 2007, there were discovered a hundred of collages with his signature in an attic of Toulouse. We don’t have much information about his life. Did he work as aidman in the First World War ? There doesn’t exist any document confirming this… It is possible that he lived two years in Le Havre before he found his love in Toulouse. René Apallec worked out great part of his creations secretly and has always negated to expose his collages – especially the series « Feathered mythology » and « Gueules Cassées« [colloquial French expression for war invalids in the First World War, especially the ones with facial injuries] that he considered as politically incorrect… His collages are abound in references to the cinema, poetry, ancient myths, politics, war…

René Apallec – First period 1914/1920

Birth in Normandy in 1896 – Death ?

1914 : At the age of 16, and in the general euphoria due to the declaration of war, he’s eager to serve his country, but an administrative mistake declares him unfit for service… So if he can’t fight, he can still be useful to the war effort and thus wipe clean the humiliation. He decides to become a nurse student in Rouen and faithfully follows the heroic actions of his fellow countrymen in the magazines he collects. But one does not become a nurse out of patriotism… There starts depression..absinthe, calva, rum ….he will not pass his exam…

June 1916 : He returns to his parents’ place at Bolbec. When at his lowest point, a licensed nurse comrade pays him a visit ; the youth is scared as he’s just being sent to work in a country hospital a few miles away from the war front. He doesn’t want to go and proposes René to take his place and fight under his name. René accepts immediately and becomes Ernest M. ; his first forged identity…Just a little bit later the young man will commit suicide by throwing himself from a cliff near Yport, only leaving what’s left of his honor into the hands of René; well..let’s say Ernest now…

1917 : Things go rather well for René in his first months there; he assists surgeons and other specialists with great enthusiasm. The war is raging more and more and the technology advances as well as other deadly inventions cause new kinds of injuries, more modern ones … Nurses are overworked, René takes back to absinthe but he had not foreseen this nightmarish plight … Back there, the war looks beautiful in the newspapers and magazines. During a delicate operation he is noticed for his skill with a scalpel despite the death of the patient not long after the operation. He is then sent to the department of intensive plastic surgery care where he has to rebuild, remodel and rearrange faces before they return home, and he drinks more and more.

1918 : As a deserter he disappears 3 weeks before the end of the war..He goes back to his place where he takes his original identity back. He is ravaged by the visions of horror he attended for 2 years. He can no longer sleep and remains secluded in his parents’ house. He keeps on using his scalpel and tools relying on his family encyclopedia and dictionaries, yet he’s deeply depressed. Period of creation of the series entitled Mythologie Oisive (a pun mixing the sound of oiseaux (birds) and oisive (idle) )

1920 : In a moment of pure madness provoked by his favorite poison, he starts cutting into pieces and tearing off all his collected archives made of war fanaticism… In this turmoil of paperwork the upside down pictures intermingle and catch his attention.. In a few scalpel slices, the face of an awarded general is broken apart beyond recognition and ridiculed. His revenge is at hand..He greatly reduces his alcohol consumption and creates the series of the Gueules Cassées (Broken faces) This series illustrates his resurrection through operating ! Even though the scalpel only glides on paper, the pleasure of sinuating along curves is indescribable. He is building his own future plundering and destroying the past…

Certains parleront d’ÉNIGME à propos de René Apallec. Nous parlerons plutôt de GÉNIE oublié du XX siècle.

Probablement né dans la dernière décennie du 19e siècle dans la région Bolbec (76), ce n’est qu’en 2007 que l’on découvre plusieurs centaines de collages signés René Apallec dans un grenier du centre-ville de Toulouse. On possède pour l’instant peu d’éléments sur sa vie, infirmier durant la première guerre mondiale ? aucun document officiel ne l’atteste… Il aurait vécu au Havre 2 ans avant de rejoindre sa future compagne à Toulouse en 1923. Ne faisant partie d’aucun mouvement ou famille artistique, René Apallec a réalisé une grande partie de son œuvre dans le secret et refusait d’exposer ses collages, tout particulièrement les séries Mythologie Volatile et Gueules Cassées qu’il considérait politiquement incorrecte…  Ses collages touchent au cinéma, à la poésie, aux mythologies antiques, à la politique, à la guerre… De nombreuses personnalités (conservateurs, collectionneurs, galeristes, antiquaires, etc..) s’intéressent à ses travaux et à son originalité manifeste.

René Apallec wird vermutlich im letzten Jahrzehnt des 19. Jahrhunderts in der französischen Region Bolbec geboren.

2007 werden etwa hundert seiner Collagen auf einem Dachboden in Toulouse gefunden. Über sein Leben ist wenig bekannt. War er als Sanitäter im ersten Weltkrieg? Kein offizielles Dokument könnte es bestätigten… Er könnte 2 Jahre in Le Havre gelebt haben, bevor er in Toulouse seine Liebe fand. René Apallec  hat einen großen Teil seines Werks im Verborgenen geschaffen und sich stets geweigert, seine Collagen auszustellen – vor allem die Serien « Gefiederte Mythologie » und « Gueules Cassées » [umgangssprachl. franz. Ausdruck für die Kriegsversehrten des Ersten Weltkriegs, insbesondere diejenigen mit Gesichtsverletzungen] die er als politisch unkorrekt erachtete…  Seine Collagen sind reich an Referenzen zur Welt des Kinos, zu Dichtung, antiken Mythen, Politik, Krieg…

René Apallec (frances) principios del siglo XX- Dibujo collage Algunos dirían ENIGMA sobre René Apallec.

En su lugar, hablamos de la ingeniería del siglo XX olvidado. Probablemente nacido en la última década del siglo 19 en la región Bolbec (Normandie-France), no fue hasta 2007 que descubrimos cientos de collages de René Apallec en un apartamento en el centro de Toulouse. Tiene aún poco sobre su vida, enfermera durante la Primera Guerra Mundial ? ningún documento oficial que da fe… Habría vivido en Havre dos años antes de unirse a su futura esposa en Toulouse en 1923. No forma parte de ningún movimiento o de la familia artística, René Apallec realizó gran parte de su trabajo en secreto y se negó a exhibir sus collages, especialmente la serie « Mitología Volátil » y « Gueules Cassées » considerado políticamente incorrecto. Sus collages afectan el cine, la poesía, la mitología antigua, la política, la guerra. Muchas personalidades  (curadores, coleccionistas, galeristas, anticuarios, …) están interesados en su trabajo y su manifiesto inicial.

É solo nel 2007 che un centinaio di collage firmati René Apallec, nato probabilmente nell’ultimo decennio del XIX° secolo nella regione di Bolbec, in Normandia, viene scoperto nel solaio di un’abitazione nel centro di Tolosa, in Francia.

Pochi gli elementi sulla vita dell’artista. Infermiere durante la prima guerra mondiale ? Nessun documento ufficiale lo conferma. Si dice che avrebbe vissuto a Le Havre, prima di raggiungere la sua futura moglie a Tolosa nel 1923. Senza far parte di alcun movimento o famiglia artistica, René Apallec ha realizzato la maggior parte della sua opera segretamente, rifiutandosi di esporre i suoi collage, in particolare le serie « Mythologie volatile » e « Gueules cassées », che considerava « politicamente non corrette ». I suoi collage dialogano con il cinema, la poesia, la mitologia antica, la politica, la guerra.