Dépaysement systématique — Jean Fournier Gallery — Exhibition — Slash Paris

Past: June 22 → July 27, 2013

Adopting an innovative approach to exhibition formats, Systematic Displacement uses the work of six artists to illustrate the process of construction of an artwork rather than the ultimate goal envisaged by the artist.

Systematic displacement: the term coined by André Breton alludes to the process of assembling and displacing forms to create a different kind of space — "the coupling of two realities, irreconcilable in appearance, upon a plane which apparently does not suit them", as Max Ernst would put it in Beyond Painting¹. Intended as a huge collage on the scale of an entire exhibition, this project investigates the creative processes of six artists. Via repetition or the use of algorithms, each of them creates dynamic systems giving rise to new spaces. A different grasp of reality is involved in these works which, brought together, trigger a displacement seen as a radical transformation of the venue. Each artist is invited to demonstrate the development of the work in question and so to reveal the unseen factors underlying it: notes, drawings and photographs that portray a landscape under construction.

Defining her approach, Jorinde Voigt (b. 1977, lives and works in Berlin), speaks of “seeking a structure or means of notation that functions as eloquently as possible.” Using algorithms, she creates scores in the processual sense: works depicting dynamic spatial models. By contrast Marion Robin (b. 1981, lives and works in Clermont-Ferrand) opts for the site-specific, with no preconceived agenda: the idea springs from contact with the venue. In their mental-physical spatial mix her projects home in on tiny details of reality and quirky perceptions emerge.

With her filmed models/spaces, Aurélie Sement (b. 1981, lives and works in Rouen) offers a singular vision of architecture that juggles with scale and shifts in points of view. In her videos she films the rhythms of specific actions, seeing her work as a space in the course of construction. Olivier Soulerin (b. 1973, lives and works close to Paris) has a highly personal approach to the everyday: serial volumes accumulating plane by plane are combined with photographs in a strategy of mingling finished works with their background elements.

Like an architect whose medium is paint, Nicolas Guiet (b. 1976, lives and works in Paris) makes play with the components of his vocabulary, gradually displacing forms and colours via drawing, and then resituating them. He tests out different positions for his works, creating pictures out of projections of forms into the surrounding space. Elsa Tomkowiak (b. 1981, lives and works in Nantes) effects fundamental spatial changes with the pure energy of painting musically arranged as coloured strata. In their gut connection with their surroundings, her structures generate enormous spatial scores imagined as improvisations.

Galerie Jean Fournier is pleased to be presenting the exhibition Dépaysement systématique curated by Marion Daniel. The exhibition is part of the Nouvelles Vagues programme at the Palais de Tokyo.

¹ Max Ernst, Au-delà de la peinture (1936), in Écritures, collection “Le Point du jour”, Gallimard, 1970, p. 253-256.