Grégoire Motte

Grégoire Motte was born in 1976, he lives and works in Brussels (FR/BE).

“How to approach his multifaceted work? Works about nothing, he says. At first glance, one notices in Grégoire Motte’s installations, exhibitions, and performances a somewhat outdated pop tendency, the installation of trivial objects (green-painted Christmas tree, fries paper, cosmetics, fake tigers, confetti, toilet glasses…) – frivolity, dandyism? It quickly becomes apparent that this vocabulary seems incidental, alongside neutral, poetic, even graphic elements (Souvenir, Cloud, Landscape…). Talking about Grégoire Motte’s work seems to first be about discussing the posture of an artist who points to things, a pretext for possible narratives, an artist who gives exhibition value to what is not commonly seen. But how? Grégoire Motte works on the conjuncture – the tigers of Geneva – the Baby villages – the rings of Belgium, he notes their presence in the world. ‘Election of something distant,’ says Grégoire Motte – If villages called ‘Baby’ truly exist in Poland, if all species of tigers are gathered in Geneva and nowhere else, if the rings of Belgium produce drawings that are never seen, Grégoire Motte makes them exist for us…” – Maud Le Garzic, Introduction to an interview for the journal 50° Nord #0, 2009
Translation: Triangle-Astérides