Sans titres 1993-2007, Musée d’art moderne de la Ville de Paris/ARC, 20 octobre 2007 - 6 janvier 2008 / Photos Florian Kleinefenn.

le Crédac

Mathieu Mercier — Sublimations

Exhibition from January 20 to March 25, 2012
Opening January 19, 2012 from 5 to 9 PM.
Le Crédac
New address:

Centre d’art contemporain d’Ivry - le Crédac
La Manufacture des Œillets
25-29 rue Raspail, 94200 Ivry-sur-Seine, FR
+ 33 (0) 1 49 60 25 06
contact@credac.fr
www.credac.fr

Open every day (except Mondays)
from 2 to 6 PM, weekends from 2 to 7 PM, and by request—free admission
Metro: 7 line, Mairie d’Ivry /
(20 mn from Châtelet / 200 m from the metro)

Press contact —
Axelle Blanc
Head of communications
+33 (0) 1 49 60 25 04
ablanc.credac@ivry94.fr

Media partners :
Member of Tram and DCA networks, Crédac enjoys the generous support of the City of Ivry-sur-Seine, the Regional Direction of Cultural Affairs of Île-deFrance (the Ministry of Culture and Communications), the General Council of Val-de-Marne and the Regional Council of Île-de-France.

Mathieu Mercier — Sublimations
Press view at 5 PM with Mathieu Mercier and the show’s curator, Claire Le Restif.

For his first show in France following his 2007 retrospective at the Musée d’art moderne de la Ville de Paris, Mathieu Mercier has assembled for the Centre d’art contemporain d’Ivry – le Crédac a group of recent works that includes several that have never been shown previously.

An uncertain cross between the avant-gardes’ project of imbuing the artistic object with practical value, and the Duchampian gesture of lending symbolic value to the object of everyday use, Mercier’s work is endlessly redefining the production modalities of objects and their passage in the field of art.

A series of printed white pedestals associates objects having an everyday use with images of measuring tools that are slightly distorted and imprinted directly on these bases. Bananas, for instance, are displayed side by side with a curved color chart, while the image of an exploded chromatic circle is featured with a vase. Selected with great precision, these compositions suggest multiple associations of ideas. Both object and image, they simultaneously assert their materiality and their representational nature, and seem above all to summon the use of our eye and our attention to reality. In another gallery, a bike, a bench made up of sections of water pipe and an updated, oversized light fixture from the 1950s conjure up an urban scene. Playing on the transformation of standards, this setting reformulates our relationship to the outside world and our way of understanding the forms all around us.

Elsewhere, in a darkened gallery, a diorama, that outmoded system of display, a kind of grand showcase inherited from natural history museums of old, harbors a pair of live axolotls. These animals seem frozen at an intermediary representation of evolution, between water and earth, and the elementary setting around them forces us to face our own archaisms in terms of representation. Halfway between the natural and the artificial, sculpture and readymade, science and illusion, Mercier’s show at Crédac plays on our systems of representation, proposing to examine our connection with reality and in particular what happens in the in-between area of that relationship.

Mathieu Mercier (born in 1970) lives and works in Paris. The winner of the 2003 Marcel Duchamp Prize, he has had numerous solo shows in France and abroad. In 2007 the Musée d’art moderne de la Ville de Paris featured the first retrospective show devoted to his work called Sans titres, 1993-2007 (Untitled Works, 1993-2007). His most recent solo show, A Quarter to Three, was held in 2011 at Skulpturi, Copenhagen (Denmark). The artist is represented by Mehdi Chouakri Gallery (Berlin), Galleria Massimo Minini (Brescia) and Lange&Pult Gallery (Zürich).

For additional information:
www.mathieumercier.com
Mathieu Mercier, untitled, 2011

Mathieu Mercier

Selective biography
Born 1970 in Conflans-Sainte-Honorine.
Lives and works in Paris.

SOLO EXHIBITIONS
(Selection since 2006)
2012
Sublimations, Centre d’art contemporain d’Ivry – le Crédac, Ivry-sur-Seine
2011
Frühe werke und etwas neues, Galerie Lange & Pult, Zürich
A Quarter to Three, Skulpturi, Copenhagen
2008
Ohne Titel 1993 – 2007, Kunsthalle Nürnberg, Nürnberg *
T. A. G, Galerie Mehdi Chouakri, Berlin
Galerie Lange & Pult, Zurich
Galerie Massimo Minini, Brescia
Des spectres et des automates, Le Dojo, Nice
Circumnavigator’s Paradox, Super Window Project, Kyoto
2007
Sans Titres 1993 – 2007, ARC, Musée d’Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris, Paris *
2006
FRAC Pays de la Loire, Carquefou *
Galerie Mehdi Chouakri, Berlin
Galerie Chez Valentin, Paris
La CIT, Aniane

GROUP EXHIBITIONS
(Selection since 2006)
2011
Au pied du mur, Galerie Mehdi Chouakri, Berlin
Sur un piédestal, Galerie 1900-2000, Paris
Tout ce que vous avez toujours voulu savoir sur le blanc, FRAC Aquitaine, Bordeaux
French Window: Looking at contemporary art through the Marcel Duchamp Prize, Mori Art Museum, Tokyo
Safari, Le Lieu Unique, Nantes
Space Oddity, CCA Andratx, Mallorca
MMK 1991- 2011. 20 Jahre Gegenwart, Museum für Moderne Kunst Frankfurt, Frankfurt
Art & Stars & Cars, Daimler Collection, Mercedes-Benz Museum, Stuttgart
Abstraction/modernité, Centre d’Art Passerelle, Brest
French Contemporary Art: Le Prix Marcel Duchamp, National Museum of Contemporary Art, Seoul
Antidote 7, Galeries Lafayette, Paris
„Dreißig Silberlinge“ Kunst und Geld – Sammlung Haupt, Halle am Wasser, Berlin
2010
Neugierig ?, Kunst und Ausstellungshalle der Bundesrepublik Deutschland, Bonn
Le Prix Marcel Duchamp: Saâdane Afif, Claude Closky, Mathieu Mercier, Galerie Mehdi Chouakri, Berlin
Le fabuleux destin du quotidien, Musée des Arts Contemporains – Site du Grand Hornu, Hornu
Private View, Städtische Galerie VillingenSchwenningen, Villingen-Schwenningen
CLIMAX REDVX, Bac – Bâtiment d’art contemporain, Geneva
High Ideals & Crazy Dreams, Galerie Vera Munro, Hamburg
Bilder über Bilder, MUMOK, Vienna
Seconde Main, Musée d’Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris, Paris
Courant d’art au rayon de la quincaillerie paresseuse, L’Observatoire du BHV, Paris
Plus de Lumière, Kunstraum Alexander Buerkle, Freiburg
Ganz konkret /, Haus Konstruktiv, Zürich
De leur Temps 3 – Le Prix Marcel Duchamp, Musée d’Art moderne et contemporain, Strasbourg
2009
L’Air de Berlin, Galerie 1900 - 2000, Paris
Trivial Abstract, Centre National d’Art Contemporain de la Villa Arson, Galerie carrée, Nice
N’importe Quoi, Musée d’art contemporain de Lyon
Just what it is... 100 Jahre Kunst der Moderne aus privaten Sammlungen in Baden-Württemberg, ZKM Karlsruhe, Karlsruhe
Portrait de l’artiste en Motocycliste, Le Magasin – CNAC, Grenoble
Insiders: Expérience, Pratique et Savoirs-faire, CAPC, Bordeaux
Une exposition de peinture, ZOO Galerie, Nantes
Poétique de chantier, Musée-château d’Annecy, Annecy
Lionel Esteve, Kolkoz, Xavier Veilhan, Daniel Firman, Mathieu Mercier, Ivan Argote, Galerie Emmanuel Perrotin, Miami
2008
A New Stance For Tomorrow, Part 2, The Gallery sketch, London
Ultramoderne, Espace Paul Wurth, Luxembourg /
Centre d’Art Passerelle, Brest*
Paperweight, Galerie Mehdi Chouakri, Berlin
RED AND BLUE BLAST, CCNOA, BruxellesThe Freak Show, La Monnaie de Paris, Paris
Valeurs Croisées, Biennale de Rennes, Rennes
Upsadream, Galerie Nathalie Obadia, Paris
Less is less, more is more, that’s all, CAPC, Bordeaux
Living Box, Hangar à Bananes, Nantes
Les mondes parallèles, MOT, Tokyo
Minimal funktional, Museum im Kulturspeicher, Würzburg
La peinture en question(s), Les abattoirs, Mons
“Regarde de tous tes yeux, regarde”, l’art contemporain de Georges Perec, Musée des Beaux-arts, Dole
2007
L’Homme Nu, Centre d’Art Mira Phalaina/ Maison Populaire, Montreuil
Airs de Paris, Centre Pompidou, Paris
Half Square, Half Crazy, À Moitié Carré À Moitié Fou, Villa Arson, Nice
Acceleration, CAN & Karting, Neuchâtel
The Freak Show, Musée d’Art Contemporain de Lyon, Lyon
Abstrakt, ausstellungsraum25, Zürich
Pas de soucis..., CCNOA, Brussels
Who Are You?, Galerie Lange & Pult, Zürich
Diplopie, Kunstverein Göttingen
Le Syndrome de Broadway, Parc Saint-Léger, Pouguesles-Eaux
Introvert, Extrovert, Makes no Difference, Galerie Catherine Issert, Saint-Paul
Cosmic Dreams, Centre Cultural Andratx, Mallorca
Europski Trienale Male Plastike, Galerija Murska Sobota, Slovenia *
2006
Black/White & Chewing Gum, Krobath Wimmer, Vienna
Midnight Walkers, le Crédac, Ivry-sur-Seine / Kunsthaus Baselland, Basel
Painted Objects, CCNOA, Brussels
„Notre Histoire..., une scène artistique émergente“, Palais de Tokyo, Paris
See History – Schätze Bilden, Kunsthalle zu Kiel / Shaken not Stirred Consulting GmbH & Co. KG Tina B – Prague Contemporary Art Festival, National Gallery, Prague
2step, Kunstnerness Hus, Oslo
Surfaces Polyphoniques, CRAC, Sète
Conversation with Art, on Art, Tokyo Opera City Art Gallery, Tokyo
Peintures – Malerei, Martin Gropius Bau, Berlin
Lichtkunst aus Kunstlicht, ZKM, Karlsruhe *
Eldorado, Galerie Une, Neuchâtel
2step, CCNOA, Brussels
Faster! Bigger! Better!, Signetwerke der Sammlung im ZKM, Karlsruhe
Animal!, Helen Pitt Gallery, Vancouver
Antidote, Galeries Lafayette, Paris
Zones Arides, Le Lieu Unique, Nantes

CURATED EXHIBITIONS
(Since 2006)
2011
Mortel !, une proposition de Mathieu Mercier, FRAC Basse Normandie, Caen
2010
Courant d’art au rayon de la quincaillerie paresseuse, with B. Marcadé, L’Observatoire du BHV, Paris
This could be a place of historical importance, Galerie Torri, Paris
Chantiers, Galerie Jean Brolly, Paris
2007
Dérive, Fondation d’Entreprise Ricard, Paris
2006
Jimmie Durham, Ann Veronica Janssens, David Medalla, Gabriel Orozco, LaCit, Aniane
* : Catalogue or publication