Saâdane Afif

Saâdane Afif takes fragments from reality to inject them into art. Events, meetings, points of view are symbolized through objects, sculptures, installations, like attempts to organize chaos, considered as an unlimited field of possibilities. This gathering of informations and the artist’s wandering are taking form in both a bitter and poetic work. The artist calls us to vigilance through an ironic and despaired thinking.

Selective biography

Saâdane Afif / born 1970 / lives and works in Paris

Solo exhibitions

2005

• Palais de Tokyo, Paris
• Cimaise et portique, Albi

2004

• Melancholic Beat / Museum Folkwang, Essen, Germany
• Prospectif / Le Hall, Galerie de l’Ecole des Beaux-Arts de Lyon

2003

• King plants and dirty roads / Art 34, Basel, Art Statements, Galerie Michel Rein
• Memory Lost / Villa Arson, Nice

Group exhibitions

2005

• Biennale de Lyon
• Invisible script: a letter to Morel / W139, Amsterdam, The Netherlands
• Vorticanti / Galleria Maze, Torino, Italy
• Down at the Rock’nRoll Club / Moscow Biennal of contemporary art, Russia

2004

• The stars are so big, the earth is so small… Stay as you are / Galerie Esther Schipper, Berlin, Germany
• D’un pas… L’autre… / Jinan 2004 Festival, China
• Shake / O.K. Centrum, Linz, Austria et Villa Arson, Nice
• Playlist / Palais de Tokyo, Paris
• Prêt à prêter / FRAC PACA, Marseille
• Black out / Selected works from FRAC Poitou-Charentes’ collection, Châtellerault

Eric Baudart

As opposed to the flux of images invading our daily life, Eric Baudart’s pictures are peculiar and seldom. Using technology (scanner, computer software) he reworks static and animated images, giving them an enigmatic aspect. Commonplace subjects (pupils’ gum, quick-frozen hamburger, etc…) enter into a special singularity thanks to “over-proportion” effects and zooming perception that evoke an image-stop and questions us about the nature of what we are seeing.

Selective biography

Eric Baudart / born 1972 / lives and works in Paris

Solo exhibitions

2005

• Galerie chez Valentin, Paris

2004

• Tight Sliding / Galerie chez Valentin, Paris
• Happy solitude / Centre culturel les dominicaines, Pont Lévèque

Group exhibitions

2005

Armory Show / Stand Galerie chez Valentin, New York, NY, USA

2004

• D’une image qui ne serait pas du semblant / Passage de Retz, Paris
• Les 5 premiers lauréats du prix Gilles Dusein / Maison Européenne de la photographie, Paris
• Format / Galerie Chez Valentin, Paris

2002

• L’art, c’est secondaire / ENSBA, Paris
• Parcours St Germain des Prés / Galerie Serge Aboukrat Editions, Paris
• Première vue / Paris, France

Delphine Coindet

Delphine Coindet’s works are mostly elements or scenery’s fragments. Architectural components, three-dimensional objects which identity is defining itself in the gap separating sculpture from the usual object, illustrate her perplexing proposition of obvious duality. Those shapes coming from virtual images, then handcrafted manufactured keep the slick aspect due to their creation process, evoking the pieces of a construction game. The using of bright or “unrealistic” colors is reinforcing a feeling of artificiality.

Selective biography

Delphine Coindet / born 1969 / lives and works in Paris

Solo exhibitions

2005

• Rock-Hard / Chapelle Jeanne d’Arc, Thouars
• Open for play / Zoo Galerie, Nantes

2004

• Circxuit / Circuit, Lausanne
• La belle Hypothèse / CREDAC, Ivry-sur-Seine

2003

• Ce monde là / Galerie Michel Rein, Paris
• Everyday at home Anytime Away / Solway Jones Gallery, Los Angeles, CA, USA
• New Barroco / Synagogue de Delme, Delme
• Composite / Le Hall de l’Ecole Nationale des Beaux Arts de Lyon

Group exhibitions

2005

• Signs of the times / Galerie Martine et Thibault Delachâtre, Paris

2004

• La partie continue (2) / Credac, Ivry sur Seine
• Red city dressing / Jinan, China.
• Bienvenue à Entropia / Centre d’art contemporain, Vassivière
• La lettre Volée / Musée des Beaux-Arts, Dôle

François-Xavier Courrèges

It’s the simplicity of the means used by François-Xavier Courrèges that is strongly characteristic of his work. Videos, photographs, drawings find an accuracy in almost nothing. His artwork has to be seen as a point that reaches its target, dealing with the feeling of love, disillusion, the fragility of human beings and things, without any pathos but levity. Patterns and slow-motion techniques are devoted to the picture as well as the soundtrack (most of the time musical and composed by the artist) creating a sort of hypnotical effect. Through tiny details, a certain screen sensibility and a direct writing freed from any superfluous style effect, the artist proves that strength is not necessarily linked to spectacular performing.

Selective biography

François-Xavier Courrèges / born 1974 in Paris / lives and works in Paris

Solo exhibitions

2005

• Galeria Nogueras Blanchard, Barcelona, Spain

2004

• J'ai un rêve / Abbaye de Maubuisson, Saint-Ouen-l’Aumône

2003

• Art Dealers / stand Galerie Alain Gutharc, Marseille

2002

• Dreamlike / Galerie Alain Gutharc, Paris

2000

• Nuancier / Galerie Alain Gutharc, Paris
• Dancing for joy / Caisse des dépôts et consignations, Paris

Group exhibitions

2005

• Paris à Shanghai / Museum of Fine Arts, Shanghai, China

2004

• Todo va a estar bien / Museo Tamayo Arte Contemporaneo, Mexico City, Mexico
• Ne me touche pas / Villa Vauban, Musée National d’Histoire de la Ville, Luxembourg

2003

• Ten by Twenty / Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, San Francisco, CA, USA
• Photo España 03, obras de La Collection Lambert / Centro Cultural de la Villa, Madrid, Spain
• Edén / La Colección Jumex, Antiguo Colegio de San Ildefonso, Mexico City, Mexico

2002

• Les Enfants du Paradis / Galerie Yvon Lambert, Paris
• Monitor: volume 2 / Gagosian Gallery, New York, NY, USA

2001

• Rendez-vous 3 / Collection Lambert, Avignon

Richard Fauguet

Wavering between absurdity and beauty, Richard Fauguet’s works are alike to develop paradoxes. His sculptures, glass constructions, fragile and monumental, are a technical feat as well as a voluntary naive approach of artistical production, questioning notions like the supposed “seriousness” of art or the durability of the artwork. Irony is springing up from a title, a drawing, a collage, revealing an abounding and poetic world where Louis Ferdinand Celine, Marcel Duchamp and Jacques Tati are gathered together.

Selective biography

Richard Fauguet / born 1963 in la Châtre / lives and works in Chateauroux

Solo exhibitions

2005

La Verrière Hermès, Brussels, Belgium

2004

Formica blues / Decimus Magnus Art, Bordeaux

• Dix ans depuis… / FRAC Aquitaine, Bordeaux
• Pas d’fumée, pas d’feu / Galerie Art : Concept, Paris

Group exhibitions

2005

• Thierry Mouillé la Fondation Mouvante volume 4 / Claudine Papillon Galerie, Paris

2004

• De leur temps, collections privées françaises / Musée des Beaux-Arts, Tourcoing
• The Molecular History of Everything / Australian Centre for Contemporary Art, Melbourne, Australia
• El arte como va, el arte como viene / Circulo de Bellas Artes, Madrid, Spain
• Objets pensés / Galerie Charlotte Moser, Geneva, Switzerland
• European Space / Sculpture Quadrennial Riga 2004, Riga, Letonie
• Sportivement vôtre / Domaine de Chamarande, Chamarande
• Champs de vision / Oeuvres monumentales du FNAC, Musée des Beaux-Arts, Rouen
• Pièges de l’amour / Frac Limousin, Limoges
• Tongue in cheek / Crac Alsace, Altkirch

Didier Marcel

Objects at scale 1 or models are the artifacts that populate the fantasy of Didier Marcel. Those mimetic works reproducing usual objects or existing buildings are mostly presented as environmental installations. Forming astonishing urban or country landscapes, his works are evoking objects as well as three-dimensional pictures. The elements such as pedestals, display cases, tiled floors are questioning the mode and context of representation. As a matter of fact Didier Marcel turns the exhibition space into a place of experimentation and investigation.

Selective biography

Didier Marcel / born 1961 / lives and works in Dijon

Solo exhibitions

2005

• Musée d’Art Moderne et Contemporain, Strasbourg
• MAMCO, Geneva, Switzerland
• Le Spot, Le Havre. Chapelle du Carmel, Chalon-sur-Saône

2004

• Hôtel d’Esterno, (proposition du Frac Bourgogne), Dijon

2003

• Musée d’Art Contemporain, Marseille
• Galerie Athanor, Marseille
• Galerie Michel Rein, Paris
• La salle de bains, Lyon

Group exhibitions

2005

• La Perspective du Cavalier / proposition du Frac Bourgogne
• Parc Saint-Léger, Pougues-les-Eaux
• Bis repetita placent / FRAC Poitou-Charentes, Angoulême

2004

• Self-Portrait Part 1 / Galerie Michel Rein, Paris
• E-A-C / ICA, London, Great-Britain and Musée d’art contemporain, Lyon
• Etrangement proche / Saarland Museum, Saarbrück, Germany
• Looping / Chapelle du Genêteil, Château-Gontier

Mathieu Mercier

Inspired by the archetypes of architecture and design, by the landmarks of modernity as well as the surrounding awfulness of life, Mathieu Mercier transforms “errant” forms without warning on his intentions. Sculpture, installation, painting are the means he uses to develop a thinking about the “serial” work, the running out of a form or reference. Convoking Rietveld, Mondrian, DIY, neon light, plastic garden chair, or ready-built construction one after the other, Mathieu Mercier is reassessing our daily environment and interrogating culture of all sorts.

Selective biography

Mathieu Mercier / born 1970 / lives and works in Paris

Solo exhibitions

2004

• Galeria Massimo Minini, Brescia, Italy
• Galerie Medhi Chouakri, Berlin, Germany
• Kunstlerhaus Bethanien, Berlin, Germany
• Galerie chez Valentin, Paris
• La Verrière Hermès, Brussels, Belgium

2003

• Prix Marcel Duchamp / Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris
• Jack Hanley Gallery, San Francisco, CA, USA
• Le Spot, Le Havre

Group exhibitions

2005

• From A to B and Back again / Galerie chez Valentin, Paris
• Spring-Summer / Pro-gram Gallery, London, Great-Britain
• L’œil moteur “Art optique et cinétique” / Musée d’Art Moderne et Contemporain, Strasbourg

2004

• EXPO 21 Strategies of display / Angel Row Gallery, Nottingham, Great-Britain
• Des objets, Modèles % / Musée de l’Objet, Blois
• Pour les oiseaux / FRAC Pays de la Loire, Carquefou
• Specific Object / Galerie Medhi Chouakri, Berlin, Germany
• La partie continue 2 / Crédac, Ivry sur Seine
• Photography, video, mixed media II / Daimler Chrysler Collection, Berlin, Germany

Nicolas Moulin

Nicolas Moulin’s plotting work brings a vague impression of threat through cold disincarnated beauties and a wavering aesthetic between sci-fi scenery and industrial wasteland. The viewer also has to immerse himself in his pictures (photographs, videos, installations) inspired by vertigo, the nuclear or post-industrial apocalypse, representing a world emptied of all human dimension. In resorting to traditional techniques instead of virtual means trouble is reinforced, which tends to generate a eery “reality” participating in the enigmatic aspect of his artwork.

Selective biography

Nicolas Moulin / born 1970 / lives and works in Paris

Solo exhibitions

2005

• Etametastabl / Frac Paca, Marseille
• Le Dojo, Nice

2004

• Kalmanoxi / Ecole Nationale des Beaux-Arts, Lyon

2003

• A.M.B.R. / Musée d’Art Contemporain, Marseille

2002

• LDRPE / Emmetrop-Transpalette, Bourges
• Vider Paris / Galerie Momenta, Brooklyn, NY, USA
• Le dernier referme la porte en entrant / Transpalette, Emmetrop, Bourges

2001

• Vider Paris / Galerie Chez Valentin, Paris

Group exhibitions

2005

• Dispersed Moments of Concentration. Aspects of the Urban and Digital / Hartware Medien Kunstverein, Dortmund, Germany

2004

• Persistante Perspective / Ecole Supérieure des Beaux-Arts du Mans
• Bienvenue dans un monde meilleur / Le Dojo, Nice
• Nun 1234 / Space Group, Seoul, Korea
• Déplacements / ARC, Musée d’Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris, Paris

Tatiana Trouvé

The “Bureau of Implicit Activities” created in 1997 by Tatiana Trouvé is a series of pieces she’s been displaying since then in the form of architectural systems classified in two categories, the “Modules” and the “Polders”. She deals with the problematic of scale and perception, space and its reduction, memory for objects and places. Tatiana Trouvé is searching for memory, the desired experience and a bunch of suggested activities she never reveals. The “BIA” is also working as a metaphor of her artistic creation.

Selective biography

Tatiana Trouvé / born 1968 in Italy / lives and works in Paris

Solo exhibitions

2005

• Il est arrivé quelque chose / Galerie Georges-Philippe & Nathalie Vallois, Paris
• Djinns / CNEAI, Chatou
• Extraits d'une société confidentielle / Frac PACA, Marseille

2004

• Juste assez coupable pour être heureuse / MAMCO, Geneva, Switzerland

2003

• Kunstverein, Freiburg, Germany
• Aujourd’hui, hier, ou il y a longtemps… / CAPC, Bordeaux

2002

• Tunnel Airlines / Galerie Georges-Philippe & Nathalie Vallois, Paris
• Polders / Palais de Tokyo, Le Module, Paris

2000

• Hollywood ne veut pas de moi… / Galerie Georges-Philippe & Nathalie Vallois, Paris

Group exhibitions

2005

• Singuliers / Musée des Beaux Arts de Guandong, Canton, China

2004

• Hors-d'œuvre : ordre et désordres de la nourriture / CAPC, Bordeaux
• De leur temps, collections privées françaises / Musée des Beaux-Arts, Tourcoing

2003

• Clandestini-Clandestines / Arsenal, 50th Biennal of Venice, Italie

2001

• Lost in the supermarket / Espace Paul Ricard, Paris
• Squatters / Museu Serralves, Porto, Portugal

2000

• Voilà, le monde dans la tête / Musée d’Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris, Paris

Jean-Luc Verna

Jean-Luc Verna is mixing his own image with his heroes’ and heroines’ through interpretation, hindsight about his own universe, representation. In one word, he’s showing off. “You’re wearing too much make-up my dear, aren’t you? Absolutely not.” The title of his exhibitions have been setting the tone since 10 years: art is a decoy, it only deals with artificiality, luxury, shams that have to get passed through in order to reveal the true meaning of things, like the scenery of a tragicomic cabaret. Drawing, cinema, photography, music, or the body of the artist himself form the basis of an exacting process through which Jean-Luc Verna is asserting himself as a polymorphous, pertinent and coherent artist.

Selective biography

Jean-Luc Verna / born 1966 in Nice / lives and works in Nice

Solo exhibitions

2004

• Vous n'êtes pas un peu beaucoup maquillé ? Non. / Frac des Pays de la Loire, Carquefou
• Vous n'êtes pas un peu beaucoup maquillé ? Non. / Galerie BFAS, Geneva, Switzerland (with Raymond Pettibon)

2003

• Vous n'êtes pas un peu beaucoup maquillé ? Non. / Galerie Air de Paris, Paris
• Sleeping Desires / Villa Bernasconi, Lancy, Switzerland (with Martine Aballea)
• Midway, St.Paul, Minnesota, USA, (with Brice Dellsperger)
• Vous n'êtes pas un peu beaucoup maquillé ? Non. / La Box, Bourges

Group exhibitions

2005

• Galerie Cortex Athletico, Bordeaux (with Françoise Quadron)

2004

• Espace à vendre / Nice Trait d’union, CRAC Languedoc Roussillon, Montpellier
• Aujourd’hui c’est ravioli / Galerie Cortex Athletico, Bordeaux
• The rose garden whithout thorns / Galerie Lisa Ruyter, Vienna, Austria
• Pour les oiseaux / Frac des Pays de Loire, Carquefou
• Danse d’indiens / Le Désappartement, Nice
• The Possibility of Experiencing the Death of Others / One and the Other Gallery, London, Great-Britain