Anthony Duchêne, Pierre Labat
Collective show with Anthony Duchêne and Pierre Labat
March 24 - April 22, 2006
Galerie de la Friche la Belle de Mai - Marseille
Anthony Duchêne
Anthony Duchêne’s work is formally articulated through installations, objects and drawings that reference sound devices such as speaker boxes, speakers, effects pedals and amplifiers. His diagrams, combining stylized representations and captions, function as independent sound proposals. The artist develops a design for objects that he repositions, according to a certain idea of reuse, within a plastic and formal investigation. This orchestration of forms and materials, sometimes integrating language, evokes sound without actually producing it. The formal aspect of the works and the movement they involve, whether real or suggested, constitute their primary expression.
Paradoxically, these pieces with sonic references occupy space in a primarily physical way, with sound remaining absent in favor of a silence that asserts itself over time. Their capacity to emit and diffuse becomes purely visual and mental. The intrinsic rotation within the works counteracts the artificial muteness in which they appear frozen. In a play on diverting the primary meaning of their component elements, Anthony Duchêne gives his works a capacity for propagation within the exhibition space. This rupture between sign and idea generates a shift in meaning, present throughout the selected works.
Pierre Labat
The works presented by Pierre Labat resemble both architecture and architectural elements, constructed in direct relation to the exhibition space. Made from materials similar to those found in the site itself (wood, plaster, white paint), they echo its simplicity and minimalism, its volumes and surfaces. These ephemeral works exist only within the context and timeframe of the exhibition and question both the space itself and the way it is used by visitors.
The form of these modules, oscillating between sculpture and architecture, between object and space to be explored, allows the viewer to choose their level of engagement, ranging from aesthetic contemplation to physical movement around and within the work. The artist alters the geometric integrity of the volumes that make up his sculptures. In doing so, he assigns a central role to emptiness in the meaning and interpretation of his pieces, guiding the visitor toward a perpetual motion or an inevitable upward momentum.
No solution or measure is provided to access the perception of the works by Anthony Duchêne and Pierre Labat. Beyond a clearly asserted presence, their identity also stems from an ability to reveal a reality that emerges from the emphasized void and the silence created. The singularity of the works, evolving with the time it takes to perceive them, is revealed in a sense of disturbance, a hesitation between the real and the virtual as the field in which the work is realized.
Text by Nadine Maurice