Nicolas Momein

Nicolas Momein was born in 1980 in Saint‑Étienne (FR), he lives and works in Saint‑Étienne (FR) and Geneva (CH)

“My sculptures draw on a wide range of materials. They involve heterogeneous techniques and knowledge that I have acquired over time, empirically. I use—and seek out—these techniques in various trades. If I know how to do certain things, I can try to do others. Taken as a whole, my work rejects all stability: it embraces the weakness of its means and sets up a rivalry between the functional and sculptural dimensions of objects without ever deciding which one prevails.

I like the moment when you ‘train’ the material—more as you would an animal than as you would set a table… You try to find out: Where does it come from? What is its destination? You bend, you unbend. You don’t know how to train. You know you don’t know, but you do it anyway. What interests me are the object‑handling practices of artisans, workers, and farmers—their forms of invention. My knowledge sketches circuits of desire born of generalized tinkering, blending registers and forms on which volumes take shape.”