La Mécanique du Manque is a miniature machine of desire, enveloped in a sensual glow.
A silicone mouth beneath a clear layer of resin extends its tongue towards a lollipop suspended from a spring, held just out of reach. The candy never fully touches the tongue; it remains almost, forever on the verge of satisfaction. The LED shadow-lighting — a warm, sunset-like reddish tone — casts an uncanny atmosphere, as if the scene unfolds at a charged twilight moment of anticipation, desire, and unease.
This subtle mechanism materialises a key notion in Lacanian psychoanalysis: desire is sustained not by fulfilment, but by the lack that keeps it alive. It is the oscillation between nearness and denial that nourishes the longing. The spring mechanises this manque, ensuring that pleasure remains almost, never fully attained.
The erotic tension introduced by the light engages the viewer not only conceptually, but viscerally. The piece becomes a mechanism that seduces while receding — a machine not designed to gratify, but to never stop desiring.