Aurélien Froment’s work is woven together by the principles of narration, taking shape through a variety of media and is often the result of a research or an association of texts, images and films. Cinema, his favourite field of imagination and collective memory helps Froment to create a story without end; a personal universe that questions the semantic power of images. His narratives’ put the spectator in an open scenario, where images generate a dialogue between fiction and reality.
Free association is a knowledge procedure Aurélien Froment often uses. Through continual “comings and goings,” he enjoys triggering dialogs with objects, places and people. In an installation at Galerie Marcelle Alix, Paris (Les Articles Indéfinis, 2011), he asked over and over the same essential question: how do we look at something? At frac île-de-france, Paris (Montage des attractions, 2014), Froment installed in the exhibition space a specific project revisiting the work of Friedrich Fröbel – showing toys conceived by this pioneer of modern education – and Ferdinand Cheval, who created a monumental work in the south of France, which stills elude interpretation today. Playing with contextual shift, Froment proposed a personal reconstruction by re-staging their works through fragments, or photographic reproduction. As well, Froment imagined a similar process for his 2010 film Pulmo Marina, featuring an egg-yolk jellyfish in its tank at the Monterey Bay Aquarium. The film compiles an extended description of the creature according to various modes of knowledge, perception and understanding from ancient mythologies to natural sciences and exhibition design. The final product looks at how the image pre-exists its own recording, shifting from a seemingly banal wildlife TV programme towards a description of the creatures display in the aquarium.
Aurélien Froment (1976) was born in Angers, France, and currently lives and works in Dublin. He studied at the École Supérieure des Beaux-Arts de Nantes, from which he graduated in 2000. Recent solo exhibitions include: “Of Shadow Of Ideas”, NCAD Gallery, Dublin (2016); “Montage des attractions”, Le Plateau / FRAC Ile de France, Paris (2014), “Intervals”, Mother’s Tankstation (2013). Selected group exhibitions include: “The Encyclopedic Palace”, 55th Biennale di Venezia, Venice (2013); “Descriptive Acts”, San Francisco Museum of Modern Art (2012); “Our Magic Hour”, Yokohama Triennale (2011).
For the month of November, CtC will present a selection of Aurélien Froment’s works on Facebook and Twitter.
Silvia Meloni
CuratingtheContemporary (CtC) 