Denis Brun

Denis Brun was born in 1966 in Désertines (FR), he lives and works in Marseille (FR)

Denis Brun creates collages and assemblages. He also makes “soft paintings,” covered in transparent plastic that holds beneath its surface tickets, flyers, and small everyday souvenirs. Denis Brun sews and glues together pieces of fabric and shiny tape to make dresses for both men and women. He writes short stories and takes photographs. He samples and composes music on a computer. He also makes videos. The artist places no hierarchy among these practices. “Each one,” he says, “offers its own way of grasping reality, each one brings its own specific form of suffering.” Despite this declared equality, video seems to hold a particular status, perhaps because it is “a medium not yet ossified.”

The series titled Le plus court chemin de la girouette au satellite thus perhaps best sheds light on the rigorous demands that underpin the puzzle-like structure of the artist’s work. Representing three successive stages, this set of videos also demonstrates that the medium lends itself especially well to Denis Brun’s favored field of inquiry: the zone of interference between the self and the collective imaginary — between the film I tell myself in my head and what I consciously and unconsciously receive from the outside world.

Excerpt from a text by Sylvie Coëllier in Prêts à prêter: acquisitions et rapport d’activités 2000/2004, co-published by Frac Provence-Alpes-Côte d’Azur and Isthme Éditions, 2005

Denis Brun’s work is on display during the exhibitions Denis Brun, Sydney Houillier, Stéphanie Majoral, Florent Mattei, Lionel Scoccimaro, Nano Valdès, 1999, Denis Brun, Francesco Finizio, Michel Gerson, Marta Vrablicova, Olivier Malfait, Lionel Scoccimaro, 1999, Un été à Nantes, 1999, Circus, 2000; and Fictionary, 2000.