In 1985, he started on what was undoubtedly to be his major work, the series of Espaces (Spaces). There are works on paper combining various techniques by using collage and superimposition, mid way between sculptures and bas-relief, like a synthesis reaching beyond these two forms of expression. Lebadang uses paper made especially for him at the Moulin de Larroque (the Laroque Mill) at Couze, in Dordogne, a pure handmade rag paper extremely thick, which he tears up by hand and joins together in superimposed layers so as to obtain a landscape with « relief », a landscape seen from the sky. The Espaces (Spaces) are monochrome, white or black. At that time he is interested in the aerial views of the geoglyphs of Nazca by the American photographer Marilyn Bridges. He sees in them a bond between man and the Cosmos.
Subsequently, Lebadang inserted into his Espaces (Spaces) relief engravings enhanced by watercolour. In 1995, the Espaces became mobiles painted on both sides and hung up. The basic material consists of paper made more compact by collage, superimposition and the addition of sand. The shapes are cut out and painted with figures or hollow shape.
Luc HO
« And, looking closely at it, Lebadang’s work seems moon-like, silently lunar. Open spaces that one observes from height, where the hills and hollows of the terrain reminds us the “Terra Incognita” of the first explorers. As if this where the kingdom of spirits, the refuge of the memory of the dead. Upon first glance, a work where the eye sweeps across glaciA sl and desert landscapes, where only an expanse of blue makes us suspect the presence of a lake or a glacier. Between the serenity and the silence before the storm Lebadang is becoming the architect of nature. »
François Nédellec
(Curator of the Museum of La Castre, Cannes)