Galerie Richard

Joseph NECHVATAL - Piano Eye

Press release

For the first time twelve galleries of the Marais district organize an exceptional event. On February 14th, 2010, for a whole afternoon, the galerists will devote their exhibition spaces for video art. The visitors will have the opportunity to view works by many distinguished artists represented by the following galleries : Galerie Martine Aboucaya, Galerie Baumet Sultana, Galerie Magda Danysz, Galerie Les Filles du Calvaire, Galerie Alain Gutharc, Galerie Eva Hober, Galerie Martine et Thibault de la Châtre, GDM, Galerie de Multiples, Galerie Odile Ouizeman, Galerie Emmanuel Perrotin, Galerie Polaris et Galerie Jean-Luc & Takako Richard.

As one of the twelve participants, Galerie Jean-Luc & Takako Richard is pleased to present the screening of Piano Eye by Joseph Nechvatal, whose work, both on the technical and conceptual levels, has today become a reference in digital art. Conjuring a subtle equilibrium between drawing, painting, photography, sculpture, the written word and the newest technologies, the artist takes us in a journey into organic microcosms.
Piano Eye is a three minutes and eleven seconds long video in which one can see a computer virus overcoming a non-infected image. In 2001, Joseph Nechvatal and Stéphane Sikora combined the initial IT virus project with the principles of artificial life, in other words creating systems of synthesis that reproduce the behavioural characteristics of living systems. This population of active viruses that grow, reproduce and propagate within the space of the picture, creates a symphony of colours and forms.
The screening project is conceived as a provisional installation with the idea that Joseph Nechvatal’s works graft themselves on the current exhibitions by Christophe Avella-Bagur and Stefan Hoenerloh. We’re playing with the idea of a graft as a parallel to Joseph Nechvatal’s works in which the viruses take over an existing environment. Consequently – the free wall spaces will be occupied by Joseph Nechvatal’s paintings, of which some will voluntarily be left on the ground, in addition to the screening.
By going farther that the representation of the beauty of a virus, the artist becomes a philosopher in the way he deconstructs our thirst for durability as well as the illusion of control. By injecting viruses and by working with simulations, Joseph Nechvatal rejects all form of nostalgia and announces the end of the world and an order at the same time.
Joseph Nechvatal’s works have been exhibited in the greatest museums in New York, including the Museum of Modern Art, the Whitney Museum of Art, the New Museum, as well as other prominent museums in America, Europe, and Asia.
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