In June 1970, GRATALOUP took part in Plastics and Contemporary Art, an exhibition organized within the framework of the international Europlastique–Eurocaoutchouc trade fair at the Parc des Expositions, Porte de Versailles, Paris. Bringing together more than one hundred European artists, the event was among the first major exhibitions devoted exclusively to the creative use of plastics in contemporary art.

Curated by Marc Gaillard, art historian and critic, the exhibition reflected a decisive shift in artistic practice. In the exhibition catalogue, Gaillard argues that plastics should no longer be regarded merely as industrial materials, but as a new artistic language capable of transforming contemporary creation. Their transparency, flexibility and technical versatility opened unprecedented possibilities, allowing artists to develop new forms of expression while blurring the boundaries between art, science and industry.

GRATALOUP fully embraced this experimental spirit. He presented a series of works combining botanical impressions on flexible plastic sheets, displayed in wooden light boxes illuminated with neon tubes. The interplay between translucent plastic, artificial light and the imprints of vegetation created works in which nature appeared suspended within an industrial material, establishing a dialogue between the organic and the synthetic.

This exhibition represents a significant milestone in the artist's career. At the beginning of the 1970s, GRATALOUP was already exploring the expressive potential of new synthetic materials—not as a break with nature, but as a means of revealing its hidden structures, rhythms and forms. These pioneering experiments anticipated many of the major themes that would define his later work: the dialogue between nature and technology, transparency, light, and the transformation of matter.