"A mask tells much more than a face, and a man is little himself when he speaks in the first person. first person; give him a mask, and he'll tell the truth. tell the truth" Oscar Wilde. Imbued with the melancholy temperament of their creator, often covered with painted imaginary narratives, Paul Toupet's children are always cross-dressed and masked. They play with the artist's sacred totem: the rabbit. The systematic wearing of masks, presented here simply as masquerade, imposes the terms of reciprocity, for the point of playing is to share the present moment. The irruption of play is the backbone of the work, encoding the postures and intentions of this schoolyard crowd, born of a complex and impulsive weaving of tensions: gentle innocence and tender naiveté represented by a powerful dynamic of postures; the roughness of rudimentary materials adjusted to childlike brutality; the proposition of the mask as an essential tool of empathy and friendly attachment, as opposed to the anonymizing mask and object of rupture. La Pulsion Narrative lifts the veil on the exuberant universe of French artist Paul Toupet, offering an enigmatic journey that unfolds the unsettling tale of a childhood in action, entirely given over to its imagination and acting when nothing and no-one constrains it. Our ability to retain the child we once were is questioned. The issue of the mask as motif and tool for reconciliation is raised. The marking on the skin is as much ritual as celebration. Friendship is made sacred. The power of play and its wild imagination act as a counterpoint to societal mechanisms that hold children hostage to stereotypes from an early age.