Cesson-Sévigné.Jean-François Karst Book Pizza at the Pont des Arts

The Gallery Pictura, at the Pont des Arts de Cesson-Sévigné, dedicates the programming of its 2021/2022 season to the theme of light.The exhibition space sparkles according to the movements of the Pizza Installation of the Rennes painter Jean-François Karst.Between representation of reality and optical illusion, the monumental piece questions the differences in perception and art in the daily environment until February 6, 2022.

Caught by public orders, Rennais Jean-François Karst had not made a personal exhibition for a long time.He returns with the pizza installation at the Galerie Pictura, at the cultural center of the city of Cesson-Sévigné Le Pont des Arts in Cesson Sévigné, for his greatest pleasure, and ours.Between representation of reality, kinetic art and public perception, the work illuminates the walls of the gallery, until February 6, 2022, in multiple references which shaped the practice of the painter.

The first lines of the work of Jean-François Karst wrote during his training at ESAD (School of Higher Art and Design) in Reims, then at EESAB (European School of Arts in Brittany)reindeer.Since the edge of the 2000s, the artist wonders about the representation of reality, the boundaries of imitation and the various perceptions of illusion.His questions come From his immediate relationship to painting."I am sure, that at one point, there is always a question of representation.Generating images is playing with appearances, "says Jean-François Karst."These illusion questions are very inspiring.They make it possible to put a critical, ironic or comical distance in contemporary art, an area that can still be taken very seriously.»»

Faced with sometimes too academic teachers in their approach to painting, the future painter moves away From the gaze of these teachers and tries to open the debate through his then student practice.He shakes up the lines while trying to demonstrate that we can work the painting by leaving the beaten track of the traditional, and somewhat archaic, Framework combination, canvas and paint in oil."Gouache is obtained From gum arabic and oil paint is made From boiled oil so the paint is already a mixture in itself.»»

Convinced that painting and graphic arts not only depend on the tools that we use, he takes an example From his predecessors who are just confined to a single tool. « J’ai toujours été attiré par les artistes qui changeaient de pratique ou la faisaient évoluer librement»», précise-t-il."It allows you to learn new situations, new materials, new implementation or construction.»» Plutôt que d’épuiser les possibilités d’un seul moyen, Jean-François Karst puise dans la diversité des matières à disposition, qu’il mixe et additionne, les uns alimentant les autres.His curiosity encourages him to artistic embodied where he is happy to flirt with installation or sculpture to better serve his point.

In a world mainly artificially shaped by the hand of man, architecture, light and the spectator are fundamental elements of his works."In a room like the exhibition space, elements act between them: the work on the wall, the floor tiles, the windows, etc..We have a strange relationship to this interaction. On n’y fait pas forcément assez attention alors que ces éléments agissent aussi sur nous»», ajoute-t-il pour expliquer sa fascination pour ce qui l’entoure.The painter reclaims the materials of our daily life and questions the representation of reality and the perception of the public in the face of his work.In doing so, Jean-François Karst tends to replace art in the daily environment and to give it a greater place, in agreement with the surrounding population.The main goal being to dismiss the idea, sometimes even prevailing as much on the side of the population as of professionals, that art would only be addressed to an elite.He thus seeks to reintegrate the individual at the center of artistic practice."One of my concerns as a teacher at the school of architecture is that the students.e.s are aware.e.s that their achievements will act on the population.Materials, colors will have a direct impact on people's lives.»»

In that the work of Jean-François approaches that of these predecessors of kinetic art, a movement born in the 1960s, at the end of the avant-garde."It was a popular movement, many artists have implemented patterns, forms or materials with the aim of bringing artistic creation to the greatest number.They integrated him into public space: in metro stations, in canteens or hospitals.»» Dans une transgression totale pour l’époque, les artistes optico-cinétiques assumaient la notion décorative de leur travail dans une approche ouverte et accessible.Among the initiatives of kinetic art artists, the movement committed Le Grav, a visual art research group, is founded for the sole purpose of making the daily life more artistic.The artists erase the artist's figure and involve the spectator in the process of the work, becoming one of the most important protest and radical movements in France. « S’il y a une préoccupation sociale dans l’art actuel, elle doit tenir compte de cette réalité bien sociale : le spectateur»», dira d’ailleurs un des membres.

Heir to this momentum of democratization of art, the Rennes artist seeks to put art with regard to all by taking hold of familiar reasons for their presence in the past of.e.He creates lures and immerses the spectator in a story, like the pizza installation, imagined by the artist in 2016 "There is a real pleasure From the public to be trapped.»»

The apparent lightness of the reactivated work is one of its forces.Its monumentality, as well as its simplicity as much as its shine, attract the new coming as the treated object is familiar.These cardboard cake supports covered with a golden film follow one another along the wall and are slightly agitated according to the fans installed here and there in the room. « Cette production vient à l’origine d’une blague»», sourit Jean-François Karst."I have long lived near a store that sold excellent industrial pizzas cooked in wood fire.In the box, there was this golden tray.»» Amusé par l’emballage à l’apparence fort luxueuse, en comparaison du contenu, le peintre commence à accrocher les disques dans son atelier, un à un.Today, the walls of the pictura gallery are covered with hundreds of said disks for a physical and strong work as much in the background as in the form.

Corrected against windows, aluminum discs with very grammage undulate and distill a slight flicker, making the space immersive.The form, the color, their multiplicity or their integration into the collective imagination are all elements which feed an infinite panel of references.

Between the decorative dimension and the history of painting, the artist questions art as a whole, if only by the re-use of an object intended to be thrown, but also which turns out to be an amazing facsimilar, and to what it refers.In the history of art, From classicism to street art, gold remains one of the most difficult colors to handle."It refers to the auraoles of the paintings of the Renaissance and to the colorful icons with the gold leaf.»»

We also think of festive evenings, event sets and avant-garde dresses by Paco Rabanne, From the couturier's first collection in 1966."I wanted to recur for elements seen in the past, especially in television sets.»» À l’image de ces expérimentations avant-gardistes, le reflet crée un dynamisme, une vibration lumineuse et donne un rythme.

Lightly, the pizza installation turns out to be just as melancholy, a tribute to an era and the universe in which the painter grew.He opposes the image of an apparently luxury to the real poverty of the material, thus questioning the evolution of society after the oil shock, at the end of the 1970s. « Avec les années 70, on a une impression d’une apogée, autant au niveau des couleurs, des formes, que du mobilier et des vêtements»», souligne-t-il."But after the oil shock, everything stopped.In my opinion, we made the mistake of thinking that we could do without the aesthetics when it remains important. Comment vivre dans un monde linéaire ?»» Conscient de ce manque, Jean-François Karst promeut un art social et questionne l’esthétique, ce qui se passe en présence de ses œuvres."Art launches debates, opens up to reflection and exchange with people who have not been met differently.»»

Jean-François is interested in what the work becomes once experienced by the public.And for this reason, the painter encourages particular and professionals to take pizza to make it evolve according to the perceptions of each.e.And to make her live.Just contact him ...

From January 5 to February 6, 2022, Pizza, Jean-François Karst, Galerie Pictura, Pont des Arts, Cesson-Sévigné.

Jean-François Karst: Contact: JFKORST [@] Yahoo.Fr

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Bourgchevreuil park 35510 Cesson-Sévigné 02 99 83 52 20 Pont-des-Arts@Ville-édevigne.Fr

Carre Sévigné Access

Access to the Sévigné square is now hampered by a terminal.For people with reduced mobility and needing to have direct access to the room, please contact the Pont des Arts ticket office at 02 99 83 52 20 so that we can give you the terms of access.

Galerie Pictura Galerie-Pictura@Ville-édevigne.FrMardi et Vendredi : 16h30/19hMercredi : 14h/19h00Samedi : 10h/12h30 – 14h/17hFermeture le lundi et le jeudi