VIE DES FORMES DE VIE

>>> LIFE OF FORMS OF LIFE

2019

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Two A2 inkjet printers, pigment print on silver metallic paper laminated to UV print

Print size: 500 x 43 cm

Deliberately absurd, the installation Life of Forms of Life (2019) confronts two different conceptions of art, the one described by Henri Focillon in his book Vie des formes  (Life of forms) and the other by Nicolas Bourriaud in his essay Formes de vie (Forms of life). These two texts, of which only the beginning can be read here, are articulated in the twisting of a strip of paper that takes up the twist of a Moebius ribbon, the front of which is printed on silver paper and the back in negative.

Focillon's conception of art focuses on the work, while Nicolas Bourriaud is concerned with the artist's artistic activity and posture, as the subtitle of his essay L'art moderne ou l'invention de soi (Modern art or the invention of self) underlines. The bringing together of these two texts, which communicate and interpenetrate as if in a Moebius ribbon, evokes a complex two-sided thought which, far from confronting each other, turns in a loop like a commentary on the work itself, which then assumes a tautological character.