Valéry Grancher

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Soljenitsyne: a XXth century paradox by Valéry Grancher (Oil on canvas 61x46 cm)

Valéry Grancher (born 1967 April 22 in Toulon, Var, France) is a French Internet-based artist, performer, theorist, curator and lecturer.

Biography

Grancher is best known for selling Internet art in the contemporary art mainstream.

Grancher's art is a mix of conceptual and pop art references, sometimes with a sense of humour, sometimes appropriating the fads of the day.

When Grancher started in the art world in 1995, he used emails in his art to show the processes and exchanges of the Internet community (email art) in physical installations like 'Alone' (1995). In 1997 he used webcams in his project 'webscape', which dealt with the concept of "cybertime." [1] In 1998, Grancher experimented with pop art in his 'webpaintings' project.[2] In 2002, as Google began to dominate the Internet, he launched the "Search Art" collaborative project by creating a piece called 'Self Portrait.' [3]

In 2005 he exhibited and sold at FIAC, the international art fair in Paris, 'the biggest Google paintings never (sic) produced.'

Exhibitions

Since the mid-1990s, Grancher has exhibited at many museums worldwide, including:

  • Espace d'Art Concret, Honegger Albers donation, Mouans Sartoux, France (2008, 2007)
  • Musée des Beaux Arts, Nîmes, France. (2008)
  • New Langton Art Center, San Francisco, USA (2008, 2002)
  • Pacific Film Archive Berkeley Art Museum, Berkeley, USA (2007, 2001)
  • New Museum of Contemporary Art, New York, USA (Rhizome)(2007)
  • Nikon Gallery Europe: "Arts aux Poles". France (2007)
  • Palais de Tokyo, site de création contemporaine, Paris, France (performance, exposition personnelle) (2006, 2005)
  • Centre National d'Art Contemporain, Le Magasin, Grenoble, France. (2006, 2005)
  • Istambul Contemporary Art Museum, Istambul Turkey (2006, 2005, 2003)
  • "Super!" 1st Triennale of visual arts, fashion and design, Hasselt, Belgium (2005).
  • Musée d'Art Moderne, Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris, France (2005, 2004, 2002)
  • MAMCO, Musée d'art moderne et contemporain, Geneva, Switzerland (2004, 2005)
  • Museo Castagnino, Rosario, Argentina (2004).
  • Galleria de arte do Sesi, Sao Paulo, Brasil (2004).
  • Musée D'Art moderne de la Ville de Paris, ARC, Paris, France.(2004)
  • Kunsthalle Palazzo, Liestal, Switzerland (2003)
  • Turm Gallery, Hemstedt, Germany (2003)
  • Biennale de Tirana National Gallery of Arts, Tirana, Albania (2003, 2001)
  • MUHKA Contemporary Art Museum, Anvwerp, Belgium (2003)
  • Irish Museum of Modern Art, Dublin, Ireland (2003, 2002)
  • Artsonje Museum, Gyeong Ju, South Korea (2002)
  • Artsonje Center, Seoul, South Korea (2002)
  • Israeli center for digital art, Digital ArtLab, Holon, Israël (2001)
  • Pacific Film Archive Berkeley Art Museum, Berkeley, USA (2001)
  • Maison Européenne de la Photographie, Paris, France (2000)
  • Museu da Imagem e do Som, Sao Paulo, Brasil (2000)
  • Fondation Cartier pour l'Art Contemporain, Paris, France (1999, 1998)
  • Artspace of Australia, Sydney, Australia (1999, 1998)
  • Neuer Berliner Kunstverein, Berlin, Germany (1998)
  • Bonn Kunstverein, Bonn, Germany (1998)
  • Documenta X Kassel, Kassel, Germany (1997)
  • Ars Electronica Center (residence), Linz, Austria (1997)
  • CAPC Musée d'Art Contemporain, Bordeaux, France (1996)
  • ZKM, Karlsruhe, Germany (1995)
  • Carillo Gil Museum, Mexico, Mexico (1995)
  • Pecci Museum, Prato, Italy (1995)
  • Moderna Museet, Helsinki, Finland (1994)
  • Contemporary Art Center, St Petersburg, Russia (1994)
  • Centre d'Art Contemporain, Bruxelles, Belgium (1994)
  • Biennale de Lyon, Lyon, France. (1993)

Private art galleries

Grancher has also exhibited his work in private art galleries, including:

  • Lincart Gallery, San Francisco, USA (2008, 2007, 2006).
  • Analix Forever Gallery (extra muros solo exhibit), Geneva, Switzerland. (2005)
  • Galerie Incognito, Paris, France (2006, 2005, 2003, 2002).
  • Sketch Gallery, Londres, Great Britain. (2005).
  • http://www.artcart.de, Franckfort, Germany (2003, 2004)
  • Galerie Rachlin LemariÈ, Paris, France (2003).
  • Electronic Orphanage, Los Angeles, USA (2001).
  • Haines Gallery, San Francisco, USA (2001).
  • Deitch project, Jeffrey Deitch Gallery, New York, USA (2001).
  • Galerie Gilbert Brownstown, Paris, France (2000).
  • Galerie Chez Valentin , Paris, France. (2000).
  • Tadu Contemporary Art Gallery, Bangkok, Thailand (2000).
  • Refusalon Gallery, San Francisco, USA (2000).
  • Galerie Glassbox, Paris, France. (1998).
  • Galerie Yvonamor Palix, Paris, France (1996).
  • Galerie Patrick Martin, Lyon, France (1995).

Permanent Collections

  • Cabinet des estampes du musée d'Art et d'Histoire de Genêve, Switzerland. (Dos drawing)
  • Rhizome artbase Net and media collection, New Museum - New York: USA
  • http://www.computerfinearts.com: Net and media art collection - New York, USA: "Jerusalem".(website) 2001
  • Maison Européenne de la Photographie, Art Outsiders:Paris, France: "heart time / time heat".(website) 2001
  • Fond National d'Art Contemporain, FNAC, Paris, France: "Reposoirs d'écran" (screensaver), "On Air" (VJ performance saved on DVD) 2000.
  • Berkeley Art Museum Pacific Film Archive, Berkeley, USA: "24h00" (website) 1999 - 2000
  • La Fondation Cartier pour l'Art Contemporain, Paris, France: "Longitude 38" (site internet) 1999, "Self" (website) 1998
  • Centre d'art contemporain de St Fons, St Fons, France: "Ulysse" (video) 1996
  • ZKM Media museum (video), Karlsruhe, Allemagne: "Memory" (video) 1994 - 1995
  • Carillo Gil Contemporary art museum, Mexico, Mexique: "Memory" (video) 1994, "U-Topos" ( installation Réalité Virtuelle) 1995
  • Le nouveau musée, l'institut d'art contemporain, Villeurbanne, France: "Epridemik Remix" (video coproduced with Benoit Berry) 1993

Some pieces analysis

Webscape (1998)

Ubiquity is a constant focus in science fictions novels, especially Philip K. Dick's Ubik. Grancher, regarding this literature, conceived and invented the concept of Cybertime: This virtual time is a kind of temporal collage done with webcams from across the world through networks. Webscape (1998), is focusing the real time multiplicity to react against the perspective view based on one space, one temporality.

Webpainting (1998)

On 1998, Valery Grancher started "Webpaintings", an ironic production regarding conceptual painting, net.art academism and pop art This project has influenced several artists such as Carlo Zanni on 2001, Miltos Manetas on 2002 and Exonemo on 2003 [4]

The Google paintings were a sold out at the FIAC but on the other hand, there was a big misunderstanding in the art market regarding these productions: His art gallery fired Valery Grancher .

Self (1998)

On 1998 The Cartier Foundation for contemporary art in Paris has formalized with Valéry Grancher the selling of a net.art piece to an international contemporary art museum. It was a command regarding the "Being nature" collective show curated by Hervé Chandès and Hélène Kelmachter. This piece is based on an interaction with the people who are connected to the website: Emails and words are associated with pictures shot on real time in Antarctica. Most of his project are based at this time on this kind of interactions (emails solicitations) and has influenced deeply the French art scene with artists such as (Tamara Laï, Nicolas Frespech, Annie Abrahams, Christophe Bruno...).

Longitude 38 (1999)

Valéry Grancher is extending his nomadism towards the space conquest... He has bought three territories on the moon closed to the Gassendi crater. These territories are the origin of a piece called "Longitude 38" where three webcams situated 18° South and 38° West are focusing these territories and sending pictures on real time to the web... Longitude 38 is also a fiction composed with texts, images and sketches: The screen is done with two frames facing each others: On the left side, a project of a mission toward the moon; then on the right side, different documents from the NASA regarding the moon conquest missions history. On one side we have the imagery of an artist and on the other side we have the precision of the technical and scientific documents from NASA. Longitude 38 is participating to the utopias history in between the mental space and the geographical space which is the relation from reality to fiction. This piece was a command from the Cartier Foundation for contemporary arts during the collective show called "One real world". This show was focusing the imagery of the 20th century and his links to reality. Longitude 38 is facing art and science and is questioning The permanent tele-epistemology of our society...

24h00 (2000)

This piece was conceived on line on 2000. It's showing life samples caught during 24 hours. It was done with the participation of 24 students from UC Berkeley and was inspired by the book of Roland Barthes La chambre claire. 24h00 is playing with 24 epiphanies based on time and experiences. After having synchronised their watches, the student has shot 24 pictures from 12 am to 12 am the day after during 24 hours. This piece was shown at the Berkeley Art Museum Pacific Film Archive.

Heart time / Time Heat (2001)

Science Fiction is worming one's way into daily life, "Heart Time / Time Heat" is offering a clock based on heart rhythm: no earth attraction, no earth travel around the sun, this clock is sending you in deep universe.

Chill Out (2002)

Produced for Less Ordinary, a French Art Scene (curator Sungwon Kim) at the Artsonje Contemporary Art Center on June April 2002 in Seoul. Chill Out is an interactive installation done with one red circular carpet with colourful pillows where peoples have to lay down and relax. The peoples were able to experiment different projects based on WAP technology: They were receiving on their mobile phone text messages with instructions regarding gestures and actions they have to do... But these actions were foolish and absurd. In Asia, the mobile phone is a kind of very personal fetish (individual mental miror). This installation also reproduces the place in the korean home where kids and parents lay down to play video games, and it questions Korean daily life regarding telecom technologies...

Tracks (2002)

This piece was done for the same show in Korea « Less Ordinary, a French Art Scene » (curator Sungwon Kim) at the Artsonje Contemporary Art Center on June April 2002 in Seoul. 6 robots (3 crabs and 3 cockroach) are paralysed in the darkness inside a rectangle 1,20m x 1,80m. When someone is focusing on them a light torch, the robots are running after the light spot. When the light is off, the robots are frozen: this installation is dealing with a kind of behaviourism "Does our world run after much more light and technology?"

Found Sculpture on Mars (2005)

"Found sculpture" is directly linked to Marcel Duchamp concepts such as "ready made". A "found sculpture" may be an object directly linked to human skill or technology.

Footnotes

  1. ↑ "webscape"
  2. ↑ "webpaintings" project
  3. ↑ "Self Portrait"
  4. ↑ www.nomemory.org/webpaint

References

External links

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