Pierre Ardouvin

Pierre Ardouvin’s installations, photographs and drawings, produced with a surprising economy of means, offers us an uncertain, ambivalent atmosphere, revealing by turns the idea of a stereotypical happiness or a muted violence. Through perverted idyllic views, incongruous festive elements, and uninhabitable or deserted interiors, nature and culture invade one another, forming a wobbly world where harmony and chaos seem to clash.

"L'ÎLE", 2007
Bois, linoléum, porte-manteau, vêtements, néons colorés
305 x 4,5 x 2m
Courtesy Galerie Chez Valentin

Selective biography

Pierre Ardouvin / born in 1955 / lives and works in Montreuil, France

Solo exhibitions (selection)

2006

• Back in Black, Galerie Museum 52, Londres.
  Chien de feu, intervention artistique éphémère, Le plateau/FRAC Ile-de-France, Paris.
  Art Statement, Art Basel stand Galerie chez Valentin, Bâle.
  Amnésie, Galerie chez Valentin, Paris.

Group exhibitions (selection)

2007

• De leur temps 2, Musée des Beaux-Arts, Grenoble, France.
  
• Lille 2007, artconnexion, Lille, France.
  
• XS, Galerie Espace MICA, Rennes, France.
  
• One, Galerie Espace MICA, Rennes, France.
  

Éric Baudart

Eric Baudart creates singular images from trivial elements and objects (erasers, dust, ground meat…) in which he is able to discern a hidden physicality. By a number of processes, notably the use of a scanner, or by the very choice of subjects, the artist gives birth to enigmatic sculptural images whose materiality is sublimated. Removed from their original world, the objects take on a new visual status.

CONCAVE, 2006
Affiches, peinture aérosol
300 x 170 x 54 cm
Collection Ginette Moulin / Guillaume Houzé, Paris / Courtesy Galerie Chez Valentin, Paris

Selective biography

Éric Baudart / Born in 1972 / Lives and works in Paris

Solo exhibitions (selection)

2005

• Density is not real, Galerie chez Valentin, Paris.
  

2004

• Tight Sliding, Galerie chez Valentin, Paris.
  
• Happy Solitude, Centre culturel les Dominicaines, Pont-L'Évêque, France.
  

Group exhibitions (selection)

2006

• Essences Insensées, Parcours Saint Germain des Prés, Paris.
  
• Sieben auf einen Stretch, Musée Martha Herford, Herford, Allemagne.
  

2005

• Antidote, Galerie des Galeries, Paris.
  
• Documentary Evidence, Galerie chez Valentin, Paris.
  
• Withdrawal, Galerie chez Valentin, Paris.
  

Michel Blazy

Michel Blazy is an artist of living material and rot. His organic compositions are the deathly theater of the consumer products found in our society. By exploring the transformation of materials and mold, the artist builds fragile fleeting installations, i.e., shifting formal worlds where the notion of time is at the heart of his concerns. Memento mori in dog biscuits, sculptures in soya noodles and other “soft lifes” made of fruit and vegetables are treated by Blazy with humor and tragedy.

PATMAN 2, 2006
Bois, pates de soja, colorant alimentaire / 260 x 150 x 160 cm
Vue de l'exposition Post Patman, Palais de Tokyo, Paris, P : Marc Domage
Collection Ginette Moulin / Guillaume Houzé, Paris / Courtesy Art : Concept, Paris

Selective biography

Michel BLAZY / Born in 1966 / Lives and works in Paris

Solo exhibitions (selection)

2007

• Falling Garden, Kunstraum Dornbirn, Autriche, C : Bärbel Vischer.
  
• Post Patman, Palais de Tokyo, Paris.
  

2003

• Le Voyage Fantastique, Württembergischer Kunstverein, Stuttgart.
  

2002

• CCAC Wattis Institute for Contemporary Art, San Francisco, C: Ralf Rugoff.
  

1997

• La vie des choses, ARC, Musée d'Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris, Paris, C: Laurence Bossé, Hans-Ulrich Obrist.
  

Group exhibitions (selection)

2007

• Airs de Paris, Musée National d'Art Moderne - Centre Pompidou, Paris, C: Christine Macel, Daniel Birnbaum.
  

2006

• La Force de l'Art, Grand Palais 2006, un nouveau rendez-vous avec la création en France, la Nef du Grand Palais, Paris.
  
• Space Boomerang, Swiss Institute, New-York.
  

2000

• The Greenhouse Effect, Serpentine Gallery, Londres, C: Lisa Corrin, Ralph Rugoff.
  
• Jour de fête, Musée National d'Art Moderne - Centre Pompidou, Paris.
  

Étienne Bossut

Etienne Bossut creates sculptures using his system of producing images by making casts of objects. Employing a single material, plastic, he faithfully reproduces objects taken from daily life or the history of art, cans, tires, refrigerators, cross-country skis, as well as puddles of water, mirrors and monochrome paintings. Plastic replaces original materials such as wood, iron, clay and so on, while allowing the artist to capture objects and reproduce them as often as he likes. By offering us real fake copies or rough doubles, Bossut playfully subverts the traditional conventions between original, copy, artwork and imitation.

LAOCOON, 2005
Résine, gel-coat translucide / 180 x 200 cm
Collection Ginette Moulin / Guillaume Houzé, Paris / Courtesy Galerie Chez Valentin, Paris

Selective biography

Étienne Bossut / Born in 1946 / Lives and works in Dôle, France

Solo exhibitions (selection)

2007

• Pas ce soir, Galerie Chez Valentin, Paris.
  

2006

• Des illusions, Château des Adhémar, Montélimar, France.
  

2005

• La beauté des canons, Galerie chez Valentin, Paris.
  
• Travaux, Chapelle du Genêteil, Château-Gontier, France.
  

2004

• Moulages en creux, Centre d'Art Contemporain Le Creux de l'enfer, Thiers, France.
  

Group exhibitions (selection)

2007

• De leur temps 2, Musée des Beaux-Arts, Grenoble, France.
  
• ...Dans ces eaux-là, Domaine du château D’avignon, Les Saintes-Maries-de-la-Mer, France.
  
• Mimetic, Communs du Chateau de Tanlay, Centre d’art de L’Yonne, Tanlay, France.
  
• On enchaîne, Parc cultural de Rentilly, Rentilly, France.
  
• One, Galerie Espace MICA, Rennes, France.
  

Didier Marcel

Appropriated fragments of nature, day-to-day objects, architectural models—the creations dreamt up by Didier Marcel disturb the viewer’s points of reference. The landscape, a central part of the work, is removed in pieces and placed within reach in sculptures that are intended for the interior. The artist plays on the nature/culture relationship and frequently uses commercial-oriented presentations in his installations (arrangements recalling shop windows, revolving pedestal-mirrors, packaging as a product, etc.) to create objects that are problematic or possess an undetermined status.

SANS TITRE (LABOURS), 2006
Résine polyester, résine acrylique, fibre de verre, cadre bois verni / 218 x 322 x 50 cm
Vue de l'exposition à la Galerie Michel Rein (2006)
Photo: André Morin
Collection Ginette Moulin / Guillaume Houzé, Paris / Courtesy Galerie Michel Rein, Paris

Selective biography

Didier Marcel / Born in 1961 / Lives and works in Dijon, France

Solo exhibitions (selection)

2006

• (S)cultures, Musée d'Art moderne et contemporain de Strasbourg, France. Galerie Michel Rein, Paris.
  

2005

• Couchers de Soleil, 1999-2005, MAMCO, Genève.
  

2004

• Hôtel Bouchu d’Esterno, Frac Bourgogne, Dijon, France.

2003

• Musée d’Art Contemporain, Marseille, France.
• La salle de bains, Lyon, France.

Group exhibitions (selection)

2007

• Daniel Buren invite..., Domaine Pommery, Reims, France.
  

2006

• La Force de l’Art / Grand Palais 2006, un nouveau rendez-vous avec la création en France, la Nef du Grand Palais, Paris.
  
• Didier Marcel / Gerwald Rockenschaub / Ugo Rondinone / Xavier Veilhan, Le Spot, Le Havre, France.
  

2005

• Antidote, Galerie des Galeries, Paris.
  

2004

• E-A-C, ICA, Londres / Musée d'art contemporain, Lyon, C: Mathieu Copeland.
  

2003

• La partie continue (1), Le CREDAC,Ivry-sur-Seine, France,C: Claire le Restif.
  
• C’est arrivé demain, 7e biennale d'art contemporain de Lyon, Lyon, C: Le consortium, Anne Pontégnie, Robert Nikas.
  

Mathieu Mercier

Mathieu Mercier has developed his reflection on art at the crossroads of two modernist undertakings, the readymade, which succeeded in bringing everyday objects into the sphere of art, and conversely the project underlying Bauhaus, which envisioned in day-to-day reality objects designed by artists. Mercier’s independent, hybrid output in fact scoffs at categories. A “Mondrian” shelf unit built from products intended for mass consumption, an armor-plated door of polished steel, or a neon Gordian knot, Mercier’s pieces give rise to singular assemblages and new coherences. They reveal as well both the mechanisms of interpretation viewers use and the ideological forces underpinning those mechanisms.

MASK, 2006
Serre-câble en plastique, plexiglas, métal / 76 x 66 x 35,5 cm
Collection Ginette Moulin / Guillaume Houzé, Paris / Courtesy Galerie Chez Valentin, Paris

Selective biography

Mathieu Mercier / Born in 1970 / Lives and works in Paris

Solo exhibitions (selection)

2007

• Musée d’Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris, Paris.
  
• Armory Show, Stand Galerie chez Valentin, Paris.
  

2006

• Galerie chez Valentin, Paris.
  
• FRAC Pays-de-la-Loire, Carquefou, France.
• Galerie Mehdi Chouakri, Berlin, Allemagne.

Group exhibitions (selection)

2007

• De leur temps 2, Musée des Beaux-Arts, Grenoble, France.
  
• Mimetic, Communs du Château de Tanlay, Centre d’art de L’Yonne, Tanlay, France.
  
• Airs de Paris, Musée National d'Art Moderne-Centre Pompidou, Paris, C: Christine Macel, Daniel Birnbaum.
  
• Half Square, Half Crazy, La Villa Arson, Nice, France.
  
• Clou à clou, Batiment d’art contemporain, Genève.
  

2006

• Supernova: Expérience Pommery#4, Domaine Pommery, Reims, France.
  
• Zones Arides, Fondation d’entreprise Ricard, Paris.
  

Marlène Mocquet

With the end of her brush, Marlene Mocquet reveals a personal world that is peopled with human figures, unusual animals, devouring monsters. Behind the apparent naivety of the motifs and subjects, an occasionally cruel and disturbing world is brought to light. Fluently, skillfully, the young artist has developed a colorful palette while experimenting with the subject matter of her art. She offers images whose recurring themes (the gaze, the selfportrait, the other and the self, desire, fear, etc.) speak of our own private world and confront us with “worlds that work on several parallel levels.”

LA VILLE À L'ENVERS, 2007
223 x 155 cm
Technique mixte sur toile
Collection Ginette Moulin / Guillaume Houzé, Paris / Courtesy Galerie Alain Gutharc

Selective biography

Marlène Mocquet / Born in 1979 / Lives and works in Paris

Solo exhibitions (selection)

2007

• Zones Arides, Fondation d’entreprise Ricard, Paris.
  
• Aponia, Villiers sur Marnes.
• Galerie Frieght + Volume, New York.

Group exhibitions (selection)

2007

• Cadrage-Débordement, félicités 2006, École des Beaux arts de Paris, Paris. C: Thierry Raspail.
  
• Moteur, Crédac, Ivry sur Seine, France.
  
• Art Bruxelles, foire d’art contemporain, stand Galerie Alain Gutharc, Bruxelles.
  

2006

• A corps tendus, Bookstorming, Paris C : Marie Martens
  
• FIAC, Stand Galerie Alain Gutharc, Paris.

2005

• Scène de ménage, «chez l’un, l’autre », Galerie Anton Weller, Paris.
  
• Première vue, 4e édition, Passage de Retz, Paris, C: Michel Nuridsany.
  

2004

• Salon Européen des jeunes créateurs pour la France, projet Art School, Montrouge, France. C: Adrien Pasternak.
  

Laurent Montaron

The work of Laurent Montaron involves different techniques of the image— photography, video and installation— while according great importance to the sound that interrupts the suspended time in which the artist’s scenarios play out, bathed in a Caravaggian chiaroscuro. The pictorial flavor of these contemplative images is akin, moreover, to a cinematographic quality where the almost motionless calm conjures up an enigmatic atmosphere.

ROUNDED WITH A SLEEP, 2006
Vidéo (HD Cam), en boucle / Production Galerie Schleicher + Lange en association avec Christophe Acker / ADN Factory
Collection Ginette Moulin / Guillaume Houzé, Paris
Courtesy Galerie Schleicher + Lange, Paris

Selective biography

Laurent Montaron / Born in 1972 / Lives and works in Paris

Solo exhibitions (selection)

2006

• LMAK projects, (Chelsea), New York.
  
• Rounded with a sleep, Galerie Schleicher + Lange, Paris.
  

2005

• La Galerie, Centre d’art contemporain de Noisy-le-Sec, France.

2001

• L’Atelier / Centre national de la photographie, Paris.

1999

• Le Collège / Fonds Régional d’Art Contemporain de Champagne-Ardenne, Reims, France.

Group exhibitions (selection)

2007

• Free Electrons - videos de la collection Lemaitre, International Center for Contemporary Culture, San Sebastian, Espagne.
  
• I am a future melancholic (screening), Tate Modern, Londres.
  

2006

• Dormir, rêver…et autres nuits, CAPC, Musée d’art contemporain, Bordeaux, France.
  
• Intouchable, Villa Arson, Nice, France.
  

2005

• I Still Believe in Miracles, ARC / Musée d’Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris, Paris.
  

Sylvain Rousseau

Sylvain Rousseau explores the codes and sources of representation. Working from original materials he produces flattened sculptures while respecting perspective. Rousseau’s sculptures depict objects or various spaces and, hung on a wall, his wooden palettes, tents or even volume-less dance halls shed their normal function, yet become altogether obvious in their meaning. Rousseau plays with viewers’ perception. They face thesetwodimensional painting-objects and their view is unsettled, though in no way betrayed: what we see is what is, an agglomeration of materials selected for their ability to conjure up a certain context, that of a common formal language.

House of the rising sun, 2007
Technique mixte, 400 x 300 cm (environ)
Collection Ginette Moulin / Guillaume Houzé, Paris

Selective biography

Sylvain Rousseau / Born in 1979 / Lives and works in Paris

Solo exhibitions (selection)

2007

• Même monde, même rêve, avec Kristina Solomoukha, Le Commissariat, Paris.
  
• La Plank, Galerie Air de Paris, Paris, C: Keren Detton.
  

2005

• Ici rêver ici, École des Beaux-Arts de Tours, Tours, France.
  
• Just bring your elephant, avec: Yann Rondeau, Pierre Giquel et Olivier Babin, Glassbox, Paris.
  

Group exhibitions (selection)

2007

• Re-trait, Fondation Paul Ricard, Paris, C: Claire Staebler.
  
• Artistes français de A à Z, Galerie Gabrielle Maubrie, Paris.
  
• Speed dating, Espace Mica, Rennes, France, C: Patrice Joly
  
• Cosa nostra, Glassbox, Paris.
  

2006

• Tomorrow never comes, avec: Kristina Solomoukha & Pascal Bircher, Galerie Martine & Thibault de la Châtre, Paris.
  
• Acid rain, Glassbox, Paris, C: Vincent Honoré.
  

Tatiana Trouvé

The creation of a space linked with the development of psychological phenomena lies at the heart of Tatiana Trouvé’s art. Begun in 1997, the Bureau d’Activités Implicites (the Office of Implicit Activities), or B.A.I., has served as a kind of mold for her artmaking. The B.A.I. has taken shape with different “Modules,” sites for working or concentration whose purpose isn’t precisely known—does it consist in producing thoughts or registering the traces of the artist’s activity? Trouvé further developed this line of research in creating her “Polders,” enigmatic spaces in miniature made up of elements that refer to disparate worlds (sports, medicine, music). The changes of scale carried out on the objects (which are reduced to 50% of their size) and the hybridizations and mutations they are subjected to bear the marks of an experience pulled from our dreams.

ROCK, 2006
Nouvelles du monde renversé.
Vue de l’exposition de Tatiana Trouvé, Double Bind, 2007 / Palais de Tokyo
P: Marc Domage / Collection Privée, Paris

Selective biography

Tatiana Trouvé / Born in 1968 / Lives and works in Paris

Solo exhibitions (selection)

2007

• Double Bind, Palais de Tokyo, Paris, C: Marc-Olivier Wahler.
  
• Tatiana Trouvé, Villa Arson, Nice, France, C: Éric Mangion.
  

2005

• Djinns, CNEAI, Chatou, France.
  

2004

• Tatiana Trouvé, Juste assez coupable pour être heureuse, MAMCO, Genève.
  

2003

• Tatiana Trouvé, Aujourd’hui, hier, ou il y a longtemps..., CAPC, Bordeaux, France.
  

Group exhibitions (selection)

2007

• Art unlimited, Bâle.
  
• Think with the Senses-Fell with the mind, 52e Biennale de Venise, Venise, C : Robert Storr.
  
• Airs de Paris, Musée National d'Art Moderne- Centre Pompidou, Paris, C: Christine Macel, Daniel Birnbaum.
  

2006

• Printemps de septembre, Les Abattoirs, Toulouse, France, C: Jean-Marc Bustamante & Pascal Pic.
  
• Notre Histoire..., Palais de Tokyo, Paris, C : Nicolas Bourriaud
  
• Réouverture .du M.A.M.V.P., Paris.