Michel Blazy
20 May - 22 Jul 2017
MICHEL BLAZY
20 May - 22 July 2017
As continuation of a collaboration that has been developing for more than twenty years, Art:Concept gallery is pleased to present the tenth personal exhibition of Michel Blazy (1966, Monaco), from 20th May to 22nd July 2017.
Michel Blazy works, experiments and collaborates with living matter. From his debut at the Villa Arson until his recent installations at the Venice Biennale, he has not ceased to reaffirm it. However, and in the image of the present exhibition, the living is not always invited in its most awaited form. Here no green plants, no insects. The living - at least in its common acceptance - is not ostentatious, but almost invisible. Instead, one discovers almost academic productions mainly consisting of seemingly inert materials, issued from the industrial circuit (plaster, food colorings, plastic). A collection of paintings presented in a classical manner on the wall, two frescoes in bas-relief which, like their Italian counterparts, have been colored “in fresco” (on fresh plaster) or a tondo whose motifs evoke the ribs of a marble sculpture or of its trompe l’oeil imitation.
All the stakes lie here; Imitate the living. Not to capture faithfully its beauty and its traits, but to reproduce and replay its strategies of emancipation, expansion and evolution. In the space-time of the exhibition, the artists stages the living without necessarily calling upon it. He uses all types of matter, organic or otherwise, without establishing hierarchies or a boundaries, and demonstrates with humor and poetry that industrial material, too, is part of a dynamic life cycle made up of hazards and metamorphoses. Thus, plaster and dyes team up to create gardens or microcosms whose only artificiality resides in their color. In the same way as “real” plants, bacteria, cells or any other organism that their forms evoke, they are the result of a chain of reactions and interactions. Inspired by microscopic observation techniques, Michel Blazy becomes a biologist who, with his pipette filled with dyes, makes these phenomena visible to the public.
But not subjected to the imperative of scientific objectivity, his approach liberates and renews our conception of the living and the inert, favoring the power of experience and emotions on the production of a politico-ecological discourse. In a certain way it prolongs and surpasses contemporary reflections on the object, in an attitude constantly rejecting all immobilism. Never fixed, neither in time nor in space, it affirms its emancipation and its permeability
Julia Mossé (translation Frieda Schumann)
Born in 1966 in Monaco, Michel Blazy lives and works in Paris. Showing preference for humble materials, generally issued from his everyday life, objects and substances that can be found in kitchens (plastic-cups, papertowels, food colorings, detergent products, etc.) or live organisms extracted from his own garden, Michel Blazy’s use of materials concurs to show the evolution and freedom of projects aiming to underline the passing of time.
From his very first experiences with lentils, to his “peeling walls” and all the way to his foam-fountains, Michel Blazy’s pieces spotlight transformations of matter and leave a prominent place to hazard and unpredictability. The artist gives the first impulse, and matter takes over, evolving and transforming during the spaceandtime of the exhibition, according to its intrinsic properties as well as the showing conditions. Often criticizing nowadays consumerism, but always making use of poetry and humor, his work not only questions the status of artwork but also proposes alternatives to reconcile artificiality and nature, the world of technology and the world of living organisms.
His work has been purchased by numerous public collections among which: The National Museum of Modern Art – Centre Pompidou; the Museum of Old and New Art (MONA), Tasmania; the Museum of Modern Art of the City of Paris; the New Museum of Monaco; Les Abattoirs, Toulouse and several regional funds for contemporary art.
Michel Blazy is among the 120 artists invited to the 57th Venice Biennale - Viva Arte Viva, curated by Christine Macel.
20 May - 22 July 2017
As continuation of a collaboration that has been developing for more than twenty years, Art:Concept gallery is pleased to present the tenth personal exhibition of Michel Blazy (1966, Monaco), from 20th May to 22nd July 2017.
Michel Blazy works, experiments and collaborates with living matter. From his debut at the Villa Arson until his recent installations at the Venice Biennale, he has not ceased to reaffirm it. However, and in the image of the present exhibition, the living is not always invited in its most awaited form. Here no green plants, no insects. The living - at least in its common acceptance - is not ostentatious, but almost invisible. Instead, one discovers almost academic productions mainly consisting of seemingly inert materials, issued from the industrial circuit (plaster, food colorings, plastic). A collection of paintings presented in a classical manner on the wall, two frescoes in bas-relief which, like their Italian counterparts, have been colored “in fresco” (on fresh plaster) or a tondo whose motifs evoke the ribs of a marble sculpture or of its trompe l’oeil imitation.
All the stakes lie here; Imitate the living. Not to capture faithfully its beauty and its traits, but to reproduce and replay its strategies of emancipation, expansion and evolution. In the space-time of the exhibition, the artists stages the living without necessarily calling upon it. He uses all types of matter, organic or otherwise, without establishing hierarchies or a boundaries, and demonstrates with humor and poetry that industrial material, too, is part of a dynamic life cycle made up of hazards and metamorphoses. Thus, plaster and dyes team up to create gardens or microcosms whose only artificiality resides in their color. In the same way as “real” plants, bacteria, cells or any other organism that their forms evoke, they are the result of a chain of reactions and interactions. Inspired by microscopic observation techniques, Michel Blazy becomes a biologist who, with his pipette filled with dyes, makes these phenomena visible to the public.
But not subjected to the imperative of scientific objectivity, his approach liberates and renews our conception of the living and the inert, favoring the power of experience and emotions on the production of a politico-ecological discourse. In a certain way it prolongs and surpasses contemporary reflections on the object, in an attitude constantly rejecting all immobilism. Never fixed, neither in time nor in space, it affirms its emancipation and its permeability
Julia Mossé (translation Frieda Schumann)
Born in 1966 in Monaco, Michel Blazy lives and works in Paris. Showing preference for humble materials, generally issued from his everyday life, objects and substances that can be found in kitchens (plastic-cups, papertowels, food colorings, detergent products, etc.) or live organisms extracted from his own garden, Michel Blazy’s use of materials concurs to show the evolution and freedom of projects aiming to underline the passing of time.
From his very first experiences with lentils, to his “peeling walls” and all the way to his foam-fountains, Michel Blazy’s pieces spotlight transformations of matter and leave a prominent place to hazard and unpredictability. The artist gives the first impulse, and matter takes over, evolving and transforming during the spaceandtime of the exhibition, according to its intrinsic properties as well as the showing conditions. Often criticizing nowadays consumerism, but always making use of poetry and humor, his work not only questions the status of artwork but also proposes alternatives to reconcile artificiality and nature, the world of technology and the world of living organisms.
His work has been purchased by numerous public collections among which: The National Museum of Modern Art – Centre Pompidou; the Museum of Old and New Art (MONA), Tasmania; the Museum of Modern Art of the City of Paris; the New Museum of Monaco; Les Abattoirs, Toulouse and several regional funds for contemporary art.
Michel Blazy is among the 120 artists invited to the 57th Venice Biennale - Viva Arte Viva, curated by Christine Macel.