Group show
Sandra Aubry & Sébastien Bourg
Benoit Barbagli
Dimitri Mallet
Célia Nkala
Bettie Nin
Curators: Camille Frasca & Antoine Py
Diving into the roots of a work, asking the question of the relationship to the origin of the material, to this identity, which we can never really get rid of in plastic practice. The first history of art, which can be described as proto or primitive, is first and foremost a history of the object, initially focusing on plastos, the material. This means looking at the matrix of the work, where it comes from, a root like a rhizome, mineral, vegetable, plastic, recycled, … It’s also a question of questioning the culture of matter, even beyond primary sensory phenomena, and thus of a “cult” of matter. Of a meaning found “beyond” the very first impression, in the evocations born of vision and touch.
Of course, it’s the anthropological relationship to the material that interests us, how man relates to it; the carnal and non-carnal relationship to matter, the uniqueness of the material or mixed media, purity or transformation or even modification, the meaning found in an organic or chemical composition that says something about oneself.
And what meanings do artists give to the material itself? What are its virtues? The symbolism and significance of materials often seem to be in the negative, yet the proposals by Sandra Aubry and Sébastien Bourg, Benoît Barbagli, Dimitri Mallet, Célia Nkala, and Bettie Nin, question our references and our relationship to the boundaries between fiction and reality.
Opening Saturday, March 3, 6:30 p.m.
At 114 rue de la Folie-Méricourt 75011 Paris
From March 3 to 17, 2018, open Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays, 2pm to 7pm.
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