PAINTINGS
NO. 25 TO 36

FIRST
ENCRYPTED PAINTINGS

TECHNICAL NOTE
ON THE IMAGES
OF THE PAINTINGS

The images presented on this website are intended for information and documentation purposes.

They cannot reproduce the colours, materials and surface relief of the original works with absolute accuracy.

TWELVE PAINTINGS CONTAINING
ENCRYPTED MESSAGES
USING CODE BACH

The commentaries on the twelve paintings in this section focus primarily on selected visual and technical aspects of the works, while also touching on their cultural references.

They show how the CODE BACH® encryption process is used in the composition of these works.

TWO ENCRYPTED PAINTINGS
FROM THE
LEVONS L’ANCRE SERIES

In the upper and lower parts of painting no. 25, small holes of four different diameters can be seen. The smallest diameter represents the digit 0, while the largest represents the digit 3.

Sequences of three digits ranging from 0 to 3 can thus be represented graphically as vertical triplets, read either from top to bottom or from bottom to top, with the reading direction forming part of the decryption key. These sequences correspond to an encrypted message.

In mathematics, this notation, which uses the four digits from 0 to 3, is called base-four notation. Although uncommon in everyday use, where base ten predominates, it offers an analogy with the genetic code: the four DNA bases (adenine, thymine, cytosine and guanine) can be represented by the digits 0, 1, 2 and 3, and codons, consisting of three consecutive nucleotides, by three-digit numbers in base four (for example 211 or 310).

Similarly, small dots in four colours can be seen at the centre of painting no. 26. These four colours once again represent the four digits from 0 to 3.

In this painting, sequences of three digits (for example 023 or 221) can be identified within each small triangle surrounded by carbon fibre. This allows for sixty-four possible sequences (calculation: 4 × 4 × 4 = 64).

TWO ENCRYPTED PAINTINGS
FROM THE
RÉSILIENCE BW SERIES

On the right side of each of the two paintings, small holes of two different diameters can be seen. The smallest diameter corresponds to the digit 0, while the largest corresponds to the digit 1.

This is binary notation, which is omnipresent in the contemporary world as it is intrinsically linked to most of the major technological advances of recent decades: computing, the internet, social networks, blockchain, artificial intelligence, etc.

The sequences are read horizontally in groups of five binary digits (0 or 1), for example 00101 or 11001. This allows for thirty-two different sequences.

These sequences can be translated using alphabetical order: 00001 = 1 = A, then 00010 = 2 = B, then 00011 = 3 = C, etc., with the convention that 11111 = 31 corresponds to the separation between two words and that 00000 = 0 marks the end of the message. One thus obtains an encrypted message that may take the form XWFRT / TZF / FCCSO / VQARTID / etc., which remains completely unintelligible, as it is encrypted using the CODE BACH® process.

Decrypting this message to recover the plaintext presents two challenges: first, it requires knowledge of the decryption keys, somewhat like knowing a PIN code; second, it requires relatively advanced mathematical knowledge, particularly in the field of cryptology.

ONE ENCRYPTED PAINTING
FROM THE
SHOW MUST GO ON SERIES

The painting above uses two number systems: base two (the binary system used in computing) and base four (which can be compared to the four-base alphabet of the genetic code).

On the left side of the painting, vertical sequences of three holes can be seen. The holes come in four different diameters. The smallest represents the digit 0 and the largest represents the digit 3. The four diameters thus correspond to the digits 0, 1, 2 and 3.

The same mathematical principles can thus be observed as those presented in the commentary on the two paintings from the LEVONS L’ANCRE series (paintings no. 25 and 26).

On the right side of the painting, a small square is attached to the main canvas. Vertical sequences of five holes can be seen on it, this time in two different diameters: the smaller represents the digit 0 and the larger represents the digit 1.

These graphical elements refer to base-two calculations identical to those presented in the commentary on the two paintings from the RÉSILIENCE BW series (paintings no. 27 and 28).

Finally, a word about the title of this series: it is a posthumous tribute bringing together, within a single visual concept, the final work of Freddie Mercury shortly before his death in 1991, and the song Le Poinçonneur des lilas by Serge Gainsbourg, who died the same year. The encrypted text indeed contains excerpts from the famous refrain (in French):

Des p’tits trous, des p’tits trous,
Encore des p’tits trous,

Des p’tits trous, des p’tits trous,
Toujours des p’tits trous.

English translation:

Little holes, little holes,
More little holes,

Little holes, little holes,
Always little holes.

FOUR ENCRYPTED PAINTINGS
FROM THE
FAKE NEWS SERIES

In paintings no. 30 and 31, small holes of two different diameters can once again be seen, arranged in vertical sequences of five holes at the centre of each painting or in horizontal sequences of five holes along the sides.

The central area is devoted to the decryption keys (PIN code, password, etc.), while the encrypted messages are located along the left and right edges.

These two paintings therefore contain encrypted messages based exclusively on the binary system.

Paintings no. 32 and no. 33 are somewhat more complex to interpret: they feature holes of eight different diameters at the top and bottom of the canvas, while the holes in the central plastic element come in four different diameters.

A graphic system using eight different hole diameters corresponds to a base-eight number system, which uses the eight digits from 0 to 7. The number 8 in base ten is written as 10 in this system, while 11 represents the number 9 in base ten.

As a nod to Hollywood cinema, the base-eight numbering system is the one learned from childhood by the Na’vi of the planet Pandora in the film Avatar, who have four fingers on each hand.

A DIPTYCH FROM THE
FAKE NEWS SERIES COMPRISING
TWO ENCRYPTED PAINTINGS

The diptych from the FAKE NEWS series shown below consists of two complementary panels.

The encrypted messages in the left-hand painting refer to those in the right-hand painting, and vice versa.

Four binary graphic systems are superimposed in this diptych:

• sequences of five holes in two different diameters, on the right side of the yellow painting and the left side of the white painting, with the smaller diameter representing the digit 0 and the larger representing the digit 1

• sequences of five plastic circles in two different diameters, glued to the small vertical painting, following the same principle: small = 0 and large = 1

• sequences of five successive colours, each in one of two possible shades, inside the small plastic circles: on the left side of the diptych, the convention is black = 0 and yellow = 1, while on the right side, it is black = 0 and white = 1

• alternating colours along the rims of the holes, using two different colours that are difficult to notice at first glance but clearly visible in the detail images below.

THE ENCRYPTED DIPTYCH
WHO IS AFRAID
OF THE BB WOLF?

The diptych WHO IS AFRAID OF THE BB WOLF? consists of two canvases of identical dimensions, conceived as complementary elements forming a coherent whole.

The two paintings are closely interrelated: certain elements in the left panel correspond to those in the right panel, making it possible to establish connections between different parts of the encrypted message.

The detail images below show elements of the visual vocabulary already explained in the commentaries on the previous paintings:

• holes of two different diameters, arranged in sequences of five holes, corresponding to five-digit numbers in base two

• two colours along the rims of the holes, forming sequences of five elements, again corresponding to five-digit numbers in base two

• small dots in four possible colours inside small triangles surrounded by carbon fibre, located beneath the small panel depicting a pen (“Sell me this pen!”), these four colours making it possible to generate sequences of three digits, from 0 to 3, characteristic of base-four encryption

The messages embedded in this diptych explicitly refer to the film The Wolf of Wall Street by Martin Scorsese, with Leonardo DiCaprio in the role of the American trader Jordan Belfort.

AFRAID OF
THE BIG BAD WOLF?

As for the diptych’s title, WHO IS AFRAID OF THE BB WOLF?, it refers to the song from Three Little Pigs, immortalised in the animated film released in 1933 and awarded an Oscar in 1934. The song’s naïveté and lightness stand in stark contrast to the ruthless world of finance and speculation associated with the Wolf of Wall Street.

THE ENCRYPTED DIPTYCH
LET’S GO

The LET’S GO diptych incorporates several elements of the visual vocabulary already discussed in the commentaries on the other paintings in this section, which focuses on the first series of paintings containing messages encrypted using CODE BACH®.

The encrypted messages in the LET’S GO diptych draw on cultural references from both literature and music, notably the world of Marcel Proust and that of Richard Wagner’s opera Parsifal.

As for the title LET’S GO, it refers directly to the registered trademark LET’S GO ART GALLERY®, developed in connection with the CODE BACH® system, of which these encrypted paintings form part.

BACK TO THE
SELECTION OF
60 PAINTINGS

Click the button to return to the page presenting the selection of sixty paintings created between 2011 and 2026, arranged in five groups.