Chefs d'oeuvre de l'art I
2016
diptych, framed pictures
203 x 113 centimeters
Unique
Seven photographic diptychs and one photograph from the series Chefs-d’oeuvre de l’art combine iconic objects that seem to be remnants of lost civilizations, as in a collage. The title of this series of works is a direct reference to the covers of a magazine published by Hachette in the 1960s, whose ambition was to inventory and popularize 40,000 years of human production. The greatest “chefs d’oeuvre” which the publisher chose to feature on the covers were placed over red, green, yellow or blue backgrounds, compositions reminiscent of pop art. The aspiration to offering a scientific inventory gave way to graphically attractive images transforming artefacts of ancient or lost civilizations into true media icons, “like a Pop Art piece featuring a Callipygian Venus instead of Jackie Kennedy”, as Théo Mercier suggests. By applying the same principle and reactivating the same aesthetically-charged gaze on distant or lost civilizations, he shows how the past is constructed and deconstructed according to unpredictable historical events and to selections made by one civilization after another. Sculptures, masks and artefacts, most of them anthropomorphic, are displayed side by side on the exhibition walls, evoking “a great gallery of ancestors where Men face other Men in their deadly humanity”, according to the artist. While the sculptures in the centre of the exhibition are ready to fade into the depths of history, the ghosts in the photographic diptychs seem to be witnesses to their own disappearance.
Like small pebbles on a path allowing us to reach some of these civilizations, climbing holds – imitations of nature for artificial walls – metaphorically encourage visitors to attempt a dangerous climb.
With Panorama Zéro, in a way, Théo Mercier revives the oracular function of artists and poets by mapping the buildings and the ruins of past, present and future civilizations, without naming them. He thereby suggests that they are what makes humankind unique.
Chefs d'oeuvre de l'art II
2016
diptych, framed pictures
203 x 113 centimeters
Unique
Seven photographic diptychs and one photograph from the series Chefs-d’oeuvre de l’art combine iconic objects that seem to be remnants of lost civilizations, as in a collage. The title of this series of works is a direct reference to the covers of a magazine published by Hachette in the 1960s, whose ambition was to inventory and popularize 40,000 years of human production. The greatest “chefs d’oeuvre” which the publisher chose to feature on the covers were placed over red, green, yellow or blue backgrounds, compositions reminiscent of pop art. The aspiration to offering a scientific inventory gave way to graphically attractive images transforming artefacts of ancient or lost civilizations into true media icons, “like a Pop Art piece featuring a Callipygian Venus instead of Jackie Kennedy”, as Théo Mercier suggests. By applying the same principle and reactivating the same aesthetically-charged gaze on distant or lost civilizations, he shows how the past is constructed and deconstructed according to unpredictable historical events and to selections made by one civilization after another. Sculptures, masks and artefacts, most of them anthropomorphic, are displayed side by side on the exhibition walls, evoking “a great gallery of ancestors where Men face other Men in their deadly humanity”, according to the artist. While the sculptures in the centre of the exhibition are ready to fade into the depths of history, the ghosts in the photographic diptychs seem to be witnesses to their own disappearance.
Like small pebbles on a path allowing us to reach some of these civilizations, climbing holds – imitations of nature for artificial walls – metaphorically encourage visitors to attempt a dangerous climb.
With Panorama Zéro, in a way, Théo Mercier revives the oracular function of artists and poets by mapping the buildings and the ruins of past, present and future civilizations, without naming them. He thereby suggests that they are what makes humankind unique.
Chefs d'oeuvre de l'art IV
2016
diptych, framed pictures
203 x 113 centimeters
Unique
Seven photographic diptychs and one photograph from the series Chefs-d’oeuvre de l’art combine iconic objects that seem to be remnants of lost civilizations, as in a collage. The title of this series of works is a direct reference to the covers of a magazine published by Hachette in the 1960s, whose ambition was to inventory and popularize 40,000 years of human production. The greatest “chefs d’oeuvre” which the publisher chose to feature on the covers were placed over red, green, yellow or blue backgrounds, compositions reminiscent of pop art. The aspiration to offering a scientific inventory gave way to graphically attractive images transforming artefacts of ancient or lost civilizations into true media icons, “like a Pop Art piece featuring a Callipygian Venus instead of Jackie Kennedy”, as Théo Mercier suggests. By applying the same principle and reactivating the same aesthetically-charged gaze on distant or lost civilizations, he shows how the past is constructed and deconstructed according to unpredictable historical events and to selections made by one civilization after another. Sculptures, masks and artefacts, most of them anthropomorphic, are displayed side by side on the exhibition walls, evoking “a great gallery of ancestors where Men face other Men in their deadly humanity”, according to the artist. While the sculptures in the centre of the exhibition are ready to fade into the depths of history, the ghosts in the photographic diptychs seem to be witnesses to their own disappearance.
Like small pebbles on a path allowing us to reach some of these civilizations, climbing holds – imitations of nature for artificial walls – metaphorically encourage visitors to attempt a dangerous climb.
With Panorama Zéro, in a way, Théo Mercier revives the oracular function of artists and poets by mapping the buildings and the ruins of past, present and future civilizations, without naming them. He thereby suggests that they are what makes humankind unique.
Chefs d'oeuvre de l'art VI
2016
diptych, framed pictures
153 x 98 centimeters
Unique
Seven photographic diptychs and one photograph from the series Chefs-d’oeuvre de l’art combine iconic objects that seem to be remnants of lost civilizations, as in a collage. The title of this series of works is a direct reference to the covers of a magazine published by Hachette in the 1960s, whose ambition was to inventory and popularize 40,000 years of human production. The greatest “chefs d’oeuvre” which the publisher chose to feature on the covers were placed over red, green, yellow or blue backgrounds, compositions reminiscent of pop art. The aspiration to offering a scientific inventory gave way to graphically attractive images transforming artefacts of ancient or lost civilizations into true media icons, “like a Pop Art piece featuring a Callipygian Venus instead of Jackie Kennedy”, as Théo Mercier suggests. By applying the same principle and reactivating the same aesthetically-charged gaze on distant or lost civilizations, he shows how the past is constructed and deconstructed according to unpredictable historical events and to selections made by one civilization after another. Sculptures, masks and artefacts, most of them anthropomorphic, are displayed side by side on the exhibition walls, evoking “a great gallery of ancestors where Men face other Men in their deadly humanity”, according to the artist. While the sculptures in the centre of the exhibition are ready to fade into the depths of history, the ghosts in the photographic diptychs seem to be witnesses to their own disappearance.
Like small pebbles on a path allowing us to reach some of these civilizations, climbing holds – imitations of nature for artificial walls – metaphorically encourage visitors to attempt a dangerous climb.
With Panorama Zéro, in a way, Théo Mercier revives the oracular function of artists and poets by mapping the buildings and the ruins of past, present and future civilizations, without naming them. He thereby suggests that they are what makes humankind unique.
Chefs d'oeuvre de l'art VII
2016
diptych, framed pictures
203 x 113 centimeters
Unique
Seven photographic diptychs and one photograph from the series Chefs-d’oeuvre de l’art combine iconic objects that seem to be remnants of lost civilizations, as in a collage. The title of this series of works is a direct reference to the covers of a magazine published by Hachette in the 1960s, whose ambition was to inventory and popularize 40,000 years of human production. The greatest “chefs d’oeuvre” which the publisher chose to feature on the covers were placed over red, green, yellow or blue backgrounds, compositions reminiscent of pop art. The aspiration to offering a scientific inventory gave way to graphically attractive images transforming artefacts of ancient or lost civilizations into true media icons, “like a Pop Art piece featuring a Callipygian Venus instead of Jackie Kennedy”, as Théo Mercier suggests. By applying the same principle and reactivating the same aesthetically-charged gaze on distant or lost civilizations, he shows how the past is constructed and deconstructed according to unpredictable historical events and to selections made by one civilization after another. Sculptures, masks and artefacts, most of them anthropomorphic, are displayed side by side on the exhibition walls, evoking “a great gallery of ancestors where Men face other Men in their deadly humanity”, according to the artist. While the sculptures in the centre of the exhibition are ready to fade into the depths of history, the ghosts in the photographic diptychs seem to be witnesses to their own disappearance.
Like small pebbles on a path allowing us to reach some of these civilizations, climbing holds – imitations of nature for artificial walls – metaphorically encourage visitors to attempt a dangerous climb.
With Panorama Zéro, in a way, Théo Mercier revives the oracular function of artists and poets by mapping the buildings and the ruins of past, present and future civilizations, without naming them. He thereby suggests that they are what makes humankind unique.
Chefs d'oeuvres de l'art III
2016
diptych, framed pictures
203 x 113 centimeters
Unique
Seven photographic diptychs and one photograph from the series Chefs-d’oeuvre de l’art combine iconic objects that seem to be remnants of lost civilizations, as in a collage. The title of this series of works is a direct reference to the covers of a magazine published by Hachette in the 1960s, whose ambition was to inventory and popularize 40,000 years of human production. The greatest “chefs d’oeuvre” which the publisher chose to feature on the covers were placed over red, green, yellow or blue backgrounds, compositions reminiscent of pop art. The aspiration to offering a scientific inventory gave way to graphically attractive images transforming artefacts of ancient or lost civilizations into true media icons, “like a Pop Art piece featuring a Callipygian Venus instead of Jackie Kennedy”, as Théo Mercier suggests. By applying the same principle and reactivating the same aesthetically-charged gaze on distant or lost civilizations, he shows how the past is constructed and deconstructed according to unpredictable historical events and to selections made by one civilization after another. Sculptures, masks and artefacts, most of them anthropomorphic, are displayed side by side on the exhibition walls, evoking “a great gallery of ancestors where Men face other Men in their deadly humanity”, according to the artist. While the sculptures in the centre of the exhibition are ready to fade into the depths of history, the ghosts in the photographic diptychs seem to be witnesses to their own disappearance.
Like small pebbles on a path allowing us to reach some of these civilizations, climbing holds – imitations of nature for artificial walls – metaphorically encourage visitors to attempt a dangerous climb.
With Panorama Zéro, in a way, Théo Mercier revives the oracular function of artists and poets by mapping the buildings and the ruins of past, present and future civilizations, without naming them. He thereby suggests that they are what makes humankind unique.
Chefs d'oeuvres de l'art V
2016
diptych, framed pictures
203 x 113 centimeters
Unique
Seven photographic diptychs and one photograph from the series Chefs-d’oeuvre de l’art combine iconic objects that seem to be remnants of lost civilizations, as in a collage. The title of this series of works is a direct reference to the covers of a magazine published by Hachette in the 1960s, whose ambition was to inventory and popularize 40,000 years of human production. The greatest “chefs d’oeuvre” which the publisher chose to feature on the covers were placed over red, green, yellow or blue backgrounds, compositions reminiscent of pop art. The aspiration to offering a scientific inventory gave way to graphically attractive images transforming artefacts of ancient or lost civilizations into true media icons, “like a Pop Art piece featuring a Callipygian Venus instead of Jackie Kennedy”, as Théo Mercier suggests. By applying the same principle and reactivating the same aesthetically-charged gaze on distant or lost civilizations, he shows how the past is constructed and deconstructed according to unpredictable historical events and to selections made by one civilization after another. Sculptures, masks and artefacts, most of them anthropomorphic, are displayed side by side on the exhibition walls, evoking “a great gallery of ancestors where Men face other Men in their deadly humanity”, according to the artist. While the sculptures in the centre of the exhibition are ready to fade into the depths of history, the ghosts in the photographic diptychs seem to be witnesses to their own disappearance.
Like small pebbles on a path allowing us to reach some of these civilizations, climbing holds – imitations of nature for artificial walls – metaphorically encourage visitors to attempt a dangerous climb.
With Panorama Zéro, in a way, Théo Mercier revives the oracular function of artists and poets by mapping the buildings and the ruins of past, present and future civilizations, without naming them. He thereby suggests that they are what makes humankind unique.
Chefs d’œuvre de l’art VII
diptych, framed pictures
203 x 113 centimeters
Unique
Seven photographic diptychs and one photograph from the series Chefs-d’oeuvre de l’art combine iconic objects that seem to be remnants of lost civilizations, as in a collage. The title of this series of works is a direct reference to the covers of a magazine published by Hachette in the 1960s, whose ambition was to inventory and popularize 40,000 years of human production. The greatest “chefs d’oeuvre” which the publisher chose to feature on the covers were placed over red, green, yellow or blue backgrounds, compositions reminiscent of pop art. The aspiration to offering a scientific inventory gave way to graphically attractive images transforming artefacts of ancient or lost civilizations into true media icons, “like a Pop Art piece featuring a Callipygian Venus instead of Jackie Kennedy”, as Théo Mercier suggests. By applying the same principle and reactivating the same aesthetically-charged gaze on distant or lost civilizations, he shows how the past is constructed and deconstructed according to unpredictable historical events and to selections made by one civilization after another. Sculptures, masks and artefacts, most of them anthropomorphic, are displayed side by side on the exhibition walls, evoking “a great gallery of ancestors where Men face other Men in their deadly humanity”, according to the artist. While the sculptures in the centre of the exhibition are ready to fade into the depths of history, the ghosts in the photographic diptychs seem to be witnesses to their own disappearance.
Like small pebbles on a path allowing us to reach some of these civilizations, climbing holds – imitations of nature for artificial walls – metaphorically encourage visitors to attempt a dangerous climb.
With Panorama Zéro, in a way, Théo Mercier revives the oracular function of artists and poets by mapping the buildings and the ruins of past, present and future civilizations, without naming them. He thereby suggests that they are what makes humankind unique.
