Attempted exhaustion
This piece is the result of work done in summer 2014. After choosing a sample from a score of Zus in Seine-Saint-Denis where operations were being carried out by the National Urban Renovation Agency, Fougeirol drew up a map. Represented as black dots on the same scale, these zones could be read as blind spots in the eye, where the visual nerve takes the place of the photoreceptive rods.
The contours of these zones are determined by streets or parcels. Fougeirol has given form to their exhaustive toponymic nomenclature. Juxtaposed, ordered, these names adumbrate a strange Lettriste poem with associations that are at once banal, arbitrary and singular.
Fougeirol has systematically explored these physical limits and produced images, following a strict protocol: digital camera with an uncentred “architectural” lens placed at eye-height on the tripod, so as to be as close as possible to ordinary perception, with an horizontal format, so as to be as objective as possible, free of bias. The continuous projection of this collection of documentary photographs in black-and-white, taken on the front lines between city and city, between “zone” and suburb, between what is considered sensitive and what is not, this film of a reality that is at once banal and provisional is both a document and an artwork.
The document shows the contemporary banality of public spaces, thoughtlessly laid out, unthinkingly “stuck together” and designed essentially for mechanical traffic. Marked by signs that are empty of meaning, they are unthought spaces inhospitable to any kind of city life.
This work probes the gap between the real and its representations, which hardly reflect those of the various players in urban development, foremost among them the architects.
Jean-Paul Robert
Tentative d’épuisement
II
8 items to paste 56,5x80cm digital printing on poster paper total size 160x226cm / edition 5ex+2ap
Tentative d’épuisement
III
Diaporama /slide show 328 photographs 27’20 variable size / edition 5ex+2ap
Tentative d’épuisement
I
transfer printing 68x96cm / edition 5ex+2ap
Born in 1962, photographer and artist Benoît Fougeirol lives and works in and around Paris. For some years now he has been exploring the uncertain zones of the city limits, collecting images. At once topographic and poetic, his approach captures the unsuspected, silent wealth of this space where greenery meets asphalt. The results can be seen in the book Autour / Around (Éditions VMCF), 2010). Since then, he has concentrated on the so-called “sensitive” areas of the city. He has under- taken a methodical inventory of these territories whose reality exceeds or belies the simple clichés pasted over it.
Exhibitions
2021 Livre des Plentes, Chartreuse du Liget – solo show
2020 Dust -The Plates of The Present, Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris – group show
2019 Botanic, La Clairière, oeuvres de la collection photographique du CNAP, Photaumnales Beauvais – group show
2019 The Crisis of Representation as Illustrated with Plants and Flowers, LAXART Los Angeles,- group show
2019 (Zus), Galerie Cyrille Putman, Arles – solo show
2019 X Artists’ Books, Inside-Out Art Museum, Beijing – group show focus (Zus)
2018 The City Front, Galerie Maria Wettergren, Paris – solo show
2018 Non Ready-Mades In The Photographer’s Archive, Galeria Asymetria, Warsaw – group show
2018 The Very Landscape of Abandon, Galeria Asymetria, Warsaw – solo show / Jerzy Lewczynsky Archive
2017 Paysages français, Bibliothèque Nationale de France – group show
2017 Fureur et éclats des architectures en ruine, Punto de Fuga/Librairie Volume, Paris – duo show/Marie Sommer
2017 The plates of the resent so far, Galerie Praz Delavallade, Paris – group show
2016 Botanic, Deyrolle, Photo Saint-Germain, Paris – solo show
2016 (Zus), Luma Dummy Award, short list, Rencontres d’Arles – group show
2015 Lignes de Front, École Nationale d’Architecture, Paris La Villette – solo show
2015 Dust, The Plates of the present, Baxter Street, New York – group show
2014 Tentative (s) d’épuisement, Cruce Contemporaneo, Madrid – group show
2013 Dust Photogram Project, Ivry-sur-Seine – group show
2013 Botanic, Temple Galerie, Paris – solo show
2012 Autour / Around, Domeau & Peres, La Garenne-Colombes – solo show
2012 La Poésie austère du réel, Clair galerie, Saint-Paul de Vence – duo show/Klavdij Sluban
2010 Autour / Around, Domeau & Peres, Paris – solo show
2009 La Librairie, Galerie John Tevis, Paris – group show
2009 Marimage, Galerie Meninos de Luz, Rio de Janeiro – group show
2007 La Villa Arpel, Galerie de la Manufacture de Sèvres, Paris – group show
2007 La Villa Arpel, Domeau&Peres, La Garenne-Colombes – solo show
2004 Autour de Cyrille Putman, Galerie Enrico Navarra, Paris – group show
2002 Galerie Serge Aboukrat, Paris – group show
2002 Galerie Nathalie Pariente, Paris – group show
2001 Galerie Serge Aboukrat, Paris – group show
2000 Recyclages, Mayers-Aebel &Mc Hale, Paris – solo show
2000 Polymères, Colette, Paris – solo show
1999 Sédiments, MAC Sallaumines – solo show
1999 Cinquantenaire Tati, Flux Cyrille Putman, Paris – group show
1998 Crestet Centre d’Art hors les murs – solo show
1997 L’Arrière-Pays, CAC Château des Adhémars, Montélimar – group show
Awards
2019 (Zus), Fedrigoni Top Award, 1er prix
2018 (Zus), Prix du livre d’artiste MAD ADAGP
Collections
Musée Reina Sofia, Madrid
Centre National des Arts Plastiques, Paris La Défense
Collection Lhoist, Belgique
Bibliothèque Kandinsky, Musée d’Art Moderne, Paris
New York Public Library, USA
Fondation Michalski, Montricher Suisse
Bibliothèque d’Art et d’Archéologie, Genève Suisse
Caisse des Dépots et Consignations, Paris
Musée Carnavalet, Paris
Bibliothèque Nationale de France, Paris
Publications
2017 (Zus), X Artists’ Books
2013 Botanic, Temple Éditions
2013 Cote 74, Éditions JP Robert
2010 Autour / Around, Éditions VMCF
1999 Sédiments, MAC Sallaumines
Media
2019 (Zus), The Eyes Magasine
2018 The City Front, L’Atelier A, ARTE TV
2018 (Zus), Collector Daily
2016 (Zus), La Revue du Crieur
2013 Autour / Around, Les Cahiers de l’École de Blois
2007 Le Regard Ouvert, d’architecture