Untitled

2011 - Drawing & Print (Drawing & Print)
4 x (150 x 225 cm each)

These photographs are installation shots of the exhibition De A à B, de B à P at Bielefelder Kunstverein (13 November 2010-30 January 2011). There, Clément Rodzielski had chosen to exhibit the series called Miroirs noirs ( Black Mirrors , black and white abstract screen prints) which is emblematic of his work. The piece of painted wood was not shown to the public; it moves and invests the space enigmatically. On the other hand, the painting which dialogues with the works on the wall and serves as a yardstick in space has now disappeared. It only exists in and for the photographic images that keep a trace of its brief existence. The small painting had been entrusted to the exhibition photographer who was in charge of placing the work in the space while taking the pictures. The four photographs were presented at Confort Moderne (Poitiers) for the second incarnation of the exhibition (18 March-8 May, 2011). In this work, Clément Rodzielski considers the exhibition-making process itself and includes the movement of artworks and of the exhibition space from Bielefeld to Poitiers. Protocols for the fabrication, the hang and the documentation constructs a production system which has been imagined for both exhibitions. The artist confronts the documentary qualities of the work produced this way (real exhibition shots/ the fictional intrusion of a “supplementary” object ; a black and white document which flattens the colored painting) choosing an imposing format, worthy of a photographic tableau : the whole installation thus recreates a space in which we projects ourselves as one recalls that the artist’s practice is largely linked to in situ projects.

Like many artists of his generation, Clément Rodzielski (born in 1979 in Albi, France) is a well-informed onlooker who works with existing images in order to reveal their mechanisms of construction and circulation. But he concentrates in particular on images which are under our eyes but not seen any longer (motifs found on internet, murals in the urban settings) or don’t circulate (retro cinema posters). Based on these images, he isolates motifs or signs, multiplies different supports and gestures in order to reveal their materiality (wallpainting, collage, cut-outs, photocopies, stencil, spray paint…) and reframe them so they can be seen better. Making abstract images and de-contextualizing them enables better attention on their pictoriality. Repeating the same operations in order to exhaust any possibilities of a gesture, Rodzielski’s practice involves numerous series. From pictorial spaces to exhibition spaces, in situ work reclaims its rights as he orchestrates his hang like installation with variable combinations.

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