Art Encounters 2017 Exhibitions:
Urban Insights

Michel Blazy (b. 1966) shows a preference for materials and objects issued from the industrial circuit as well as for living organisms. His metamorphic, hazardous and unpredictable artworks which reunite artificiality and nature prove that no matter can possibly be inert. Emphasizing the passing of time, the artist criticizes nowadays consumerism through a poetic and sometimes humoristic language.

Selected exhibitions: Le Rêve des formes, Palais de Tokyo, Paris (2017); Michel Blazy – Solo Show, Art : Concept gallery (2017, solo); Living Room II, Maison Hermès, Tokyo (2016, solo); Pull Over Time, Art : Concept, Paris (2015, solo); In Vitro (studies on entropy), apexart Copenhagen (2015); Le Manifeste de l’arbre, Zabriskie Point, Geneva (2015); Bouquet Final 3, National Gallery of Victoria, White Night, Melbourne (2013, solo); Metaphoria II, ReMap4, Athens (2013); Le Grand Restaurant, Frac Île-de-France, Paris (2012, solo); Michel Blazy, Kunsthaus Baselland, Basel (2010, solo); Post Patman, Palais de Tokyo, Paris (2007, solo); Le voyage fantastique, Württembergischer Kunstverein, Stuttgart (2003, solo); Our Mutual Friend, Bloomberg Space, London (2003); Pluie d’air, Galerie Gabrielle Vitte, Ajaccio (1996, solo). Michel Blazy is among the artists invited to the 57th edition of the International Venice Biennale.

Michel Blazy works with unconventional materials taken from everyday life: plastic cups, paper towels, food coloring, household cleaning products, etc.

He offers substitutes to reconcile artificiality and nature, the world of technology and the universe of living creatures, focusing on unforeseeable processes in opposition to our culture’s obsession for control.

His works thus become a metaphor of fragility, passing time and the brevity of life.

In Fontaine de mousse, the sinuous coils of white foam emerge from plastic trash bins in an on-going transformation, emphasizing the overpowering and unpredictable nature of matter in constant change. The resulted columns become ephemeral monuments stretching to infinity, that could bring to one’s mind the transcendence character of Constantin Brâncuși’s Endless column.

Images:

1. Michel Blazy, Portrait, photo credits: Nacása Partners Inc.

2. Michel Blazy, Fontaine de mousse (2007), installation view, Palais de Tokyo, Paris, rubbish bins, foam-bath, compressor unit, plastic tubes, dimensions variable, courtesy of: Michel Blazy and Art : Concept, Paris, photo credits: Marc Domage