Aurélien Froment. News from Earth
24 Apr - 21 Jun 2015
Opening: Thursday, 23 April, 8 pm
In cooperation, Badischer Kunstverein and Heidelberger Kunstverein show two simultaneous exhibitions by French artist Aurélien Froment, his largest solo presentation in Germany to date. In his works, Froment investigates the reception, montage, and experience of images and the spaces in which they exist, creating documents and exhibitions drawn from sources whose heterogeneity characterizes his practice.
In the exhibition at Badischer Kunstverein, three projects reflect on historical sites: the autodidact and postman Ferdinand Cheval’s Palais idéal, the architect Paolo Soleri’s experimental city Arcosanti, and the philosopher Giulio Camillo’s theatre of memory. Each represents a historical shift and highlights an eccentric engagement outside the purview of the classical art canon.
Tombeau idéal de Ferdinand Cheval (2014) is the central work in the exhibition and will be shown in Germany for the first time. Froment’s installation of black-and-white photographs document the unique language of forms Cheval deployed to build his ideal palace as a sculptural monument from 1879 to 1912. Cheval himself never travelled. He was postman and autodidact, and his fantastical, naïve visual vocabulary of the most varied figures, forms, and objects was most probably drawn from the illustrations available to him in his small library’s volumes. Froment activates a new form of archive to transfer the ‘Wunderkammer’ of this individual man into the exhibition room: he photographed numerous items individually by masking their surroundings with black cloth, thus isolating them from the broader context. Parts of Cheval’s work are revealed while others are concealed; thus serving up a panoply of bizarre forms for one’s own imagination.
The overwhelming number of images in Tombeau idéal de Ferdinand Cheval contrasts with the austere stage in the artist's film, Camillo’s Idea (2013). This work addresses the memory theatre of the Italian philosopher Giulio Camillo (1480-1544), in which the entire knowledge of the world is stored in images, like entries in an encyclopedia. Froment uses the medium of film to approach Camillo’s repository of knowledge and its depiction is delivered by a single female figure on stage. Two primary sources, pointing up two different currents in Renaissance thought, are interwoven in this work. In one, the actress recites a letter written by the philosopher Viglius Zuichemus to his friend Erasmus, in which he describes visiting Camillo. In the other, she performs Camillo’s own description of the theater of memory, which was published only after his death. Humanism as an advocate of reason is set against an intellectual visual cosmos which draws its multitude of forms and shapes from antiquity and the Middle Ages.
The third and ongoing group of works concentrates on the Italian architect Paolo Soleri, whose lifelong project was the construction of a model city as an alternative to urban sprawl. First sketched in the mid-1950s, Arcosanti has been under construction in the Arizona desert since 1970. Arcosanti is Soleri’s alternative to the modern American city and epitomizes his idea of ‘arcology’, combining architecture and ecology.
In order to transfer the effect of this impressive community into another space, Froment organised a workshop with students of the art and design courses at the Institut supérieur des arts de Toulouse to make models of a number of significant structures from Arcosanti using Soleri’s technique of earth casting. These objects, entitled Earthworks (2015), are presented for the first time at Badischer Kunstverein and are accompanied by a series of new photographs entitled “Negative Architecture” (2015). The influence of Soleri’s experiments in producing ceramics can be seen in his architectural work. 21 of his famous ceramic windbells were cast in Arcosanti for the Kunstverein: a symbol of Soleri’s visionary architecture in miniature.
Aurélien Froment (b. 1976 in Angers, France) lives in Dublin. His exhibition “Fröbel Fröbeled” was presented in 2014 by Le Plateau–FRAC Ile de France (Paris, France), Contemporary Art Gallery (Vancouver, Canada), Villa Arson (Nice, France), Spike Island (Bristol, Great Britain) and is currently on view at the Heidelberger Kunstverein (Germany). Many other institutions have organised solo exhibitions of his work, amongst which are CCA Wattis, San Francisco; Le Crédac, Ivry-sur-Seine, Musée de Rochechouart, and Gasworks, London. He participated in the Sydney Biennial (2014), the Venice Biennial (2013), the Lyon Biennial (2011), the Yokohama Triennale (2011), and the Gwangju Biennial (2010). He is currently a studio member of Temple Bar Gallery + Studios in Dublin.
Curated by Anja Casser
Exhibition at Heidelberger Kunstverein
Aurélien Froment: Fröbel gefröbelt
Press Preview: Tuesday, 21 April, 11 am
Opening: Wednesday, 22 April, 7 pm
Duration: 23 April – 21 June 2015
In cooperation with Heidelberger Kunstverein
With kind support of:
Institut Français
Le Plateau–FRAC Île-de-France, Paris
Les Abattoirs–FRAC Midi-Pyrénées, Toulouse
Institut Supérieur des Arts de Toulouse (ISDAT)
In cooperation, Badischer Kunstverein and Heidelberger Kunstverein show two simultaneous exhibitions by French artist Aurélien Froment, his largest solo presentation in Germany to date. In his works, Froment investigates the reception, montage, and experience of images and the spaces in which they exist, creating documents and exhibitions drawn from sources whose heterogeneity characterizes his practice.
In the exhibition at Badischer Kunstverein, three projects reflect on historical sites: the autodidact and postman Ferdinand Cheval’s Palais idéal, the architect Paolo Soleri’s experimental city Arcosanti, and the philosopher Giulio Camillo’s theatre of memory. Each represents a historical shift and highlights an eccentric engagement outside the purview of the classical art canon.
Tombeau idéal de Ferdinand Cheval (2014) is the central work in the exhibition and will be shown in Germany for the first time. Froment’s installation of black-and-white photographs document the unique language of forms Cheval deployed to build his ideal palace as a sculptural monument from 1879 to 1912. Cheval himself never travelled. He was postman and autodidact, and his fantastical, naïve visual vocabulary of the most varied figures, forms, and objects was most probably drawn from the illustrations available to him in his small library’s volumes. Froment activates a new form of archive to transfer the ‘Wunderkammer’ of this individual man into the exhibition room: he photographed numerous items individually by masking their surroundings with black cloth, thus isolating them from the broader context. Parts of Cheval’s work are revealed while others are concealed; thus serving up a panoply of bizarre forms for one’s own imagination.
The overwhelming number of images in Tombeau idéal de Ferdinand Cheval contrasts with the austere stage in the artist's film, Camillo’s Idea (2013). This work addresses the memory theatre of the Italian philosopher Giulio Camillo (1480-1544), in which the entire knowledge of the world is stored in images, like entries in an encyclopedia. Froment uses the medium of film to approach Camillo’s repository of knowledge and its depiction is delivered by a single female figure on stage. Two primary sources, pointing up two different currents in Renaissance thought, are interwoven in this work. In one, the actress recites a letter written by the philosopher Viglius Zuichemus to his friend Erasmus, in which he describes visiting Camillo. In the other, she performs Camillo’s own description of the theater of memory, which was published only after his death. Humanism as an advocate of reason is set against an intellectual visual cosmos which draws its multitude of forms and shapes from antiquity and the Middle Ages.
The third and ongoing group of works concentrates on the Italian architect Paolo Soleri, whose lifelong project was the construction of a model city as an alternative to urban sprawl. First sketched in the mid-1950s, Arcosanti has been under construction in the Arizona desert since 1970. Arcosanti is Soleri’s alternative to the modern American city and epitomizes his idea of ‘arcology’, combining architecture and ecology.
In order to transfer the effect of this impressive community into another space, Froment organised a workshop with students of the art and design courses at the Institut supérieur des arts de Toulouse to make models of a number of significant structures from Arcosanti using Soleri’s technique of earth casting. These objects, entitled Earthworks (2015), are presented for the first time at Badischer Kunstverein and are accompanied by a series of new photographs entitled “Negative Architecture” (2015). The influence of Soleri’s experiments in producing ceramics can be seen in his architectural work. 21 of his famous ceramic windbells were cast in Arcosanti for the Kunstverein: a symbol of Soleri’s visionary architecture in miniature.
Aurélien Froment (b. 1976 in Angers, France) lives in Dublin. His exhibition “Fröbel Fröbeled” was presented in 2014 by Le Plateau–FRAC Ile de France (Paris, France), Contemporary Art Gallery (Vancouver, Canada), Villa Arson (Nice, France), Spike Island (Bristol, Great Britain) and is currently on view at the Heidelberger Kunstverein (Germany). Many other institutions have organised solo exhibitions of his work, amongst which are CCA Wattis, San Francisco; Le Crédac, Ivry-sur-Seine, Musée de Rochechouart, and Gasworks, London. He participated in the Sydney Biennial (2014), the Venice Biennial (2013), the Lyon Biennial (2011), the Yokohama Triennale (2011), and the Gwangju Biennial (2010). He is currently a studio member of Temple Bar Gallery + Studios in Dublin.
Curated by Anja Casser
Exhibition at Heidelberger Kunstverein
Aurélien Froment: Fröbel gefröbelt
Press Preview: Tuesday, 21 April, 11 am
Opening: Wednesday, 22 April, 7 pm
Duration: 23 April – 21 June 2015
In cooperation with Heidelberger Kunstverein
With kind support of:
Institut Français
Le Plateau–FRAC Île-de-France, Paris
Les Abattoirs–FRAC Midi-Pyrénées, Toulouse
Institut Supérieur des Arts de Toulouse (ISDAT)