Cyril Aboucaya / recent work, part 1
pineapple - old color engraving from the book of F. P. Chaumeton, Medical Flora, 1815
recent work selection 2010-2011 >
The works presented here have been made in recent months, so they’re very recent achievements, partially reflecting of an entire work begun much earlier. It is difficult to explain why this research started, but probably with the pictorial work influenced by the writings of W. Benjamin, began to emerge a reflection of the layer and the surface, like illusionist icing of the perceived image, considering what it contains misleading. Mean of mass distribution, the projection allowed me to create gaps in paintings (anamorphosis) due to specific angle impacts. In sculpture, using cheap materials has been instrumental, through the treatment of reconstituted wood and covering materials: plastic embalming (venillia) to simulate resistance and machining. The topics are chosen for their relevancy to the method, almost in apology, related to History and their history: rabbits for the reproducibility of pictures, bats for the volatility of the image, and more recently influenced funerary objects for sculptures made from non-resistant materials, and emphasizing on the contrary the idea of posterity/sustainability. Therefore in my more recent work appear tombs, altars, and offerings of fruit from wild or exotic substrates contrasting with a standard production protocol, almost uniform, involving contemporary production, furniture, and aesthetic outcomes of the Bauhaus and american minimalists.
So, in the following pages are exposed proposals of installations without excessive forms or virtuosos finishes, in simple assemblages, or from patched up wastes, furniture and objects recovered abandoned on the sidewalks as vestiges of the present time and bulky from a superficially close past. These works deal with a state of “surface”, almost warholian, suggesting a concept as superficial than deep in the external treatment of the subject. The packaging is often composed of textured adhesives, false wood or false marble, heavily used by commercial industries such as a fraud simulating the pomp, alternating matte, satin or gloss to trick the space, suggesting vanities and illusions “lark.” The question of “surface” also arises through the integration of wild elements, entropy breaking from the visual consistency, and taking position of parasites, blessed fruits or offerings. Pineapple, coconut or nettles ask this question to touch: one spade, one is hard and hairy, and the other is poisonous. The sombrero represents the head, or his absence. Its visual complexity and chromatics approach them through braiding, roughness or the alveoli. Knowing too few Mexico, my interest is growing for all the tradition of Dia de los muertos, foot-nose to the occultation of this subject in Occident. The pineapple also punctuates all the work as a desire for exoticism, referring as well to vacation and Pina Colada, than to an ambiguous historical relationship arising from exploiting and a colonial past. During the time of exhibition, the vegetal substrate starts a rotting process, and its replacement ritual - go buy one at the corner shop for re-installation - is to my eyes like a contemporary procession of the icon, without which the piece and the pedestal can sometimes stay meaningless.
exhibition “Concept Store”, in the galerie Intuiti, Paris, may 2011 >
This installation recreates a fictitious tomb, inspired by the Egyptian mastabas and contemporary interiors.
“The sculptures presented by Cyril Aboucaya in the galerie Intuiti are sectional tombs (kit). Nothing less. Influenced by the aesthetics generated by industrial production in hyperéchelle, these “exotigothiques” monuments tell us thoughts of this final taboo of death. Far from Pathos mountains or cheerful Oaxaca *, death close-to-home, a few steps from IKEA. Smooth and cold, the altar and stelae mystify the manufacture of funerary offering to handle with the defects and qualities of furniture companies over-produced for the living. The materials are the same and one will guess during a choreographed foolish movements assembly. We are in the machine, in the dust and fumes of glue, sand [...] when you would like eternity. Interchangeable and non-resistant, the kit is here, finally, the space of a time, a possible posterity. “ Pascale Geoffrois
following and previous page: Installation view “pompes funèbres/CONCEPT STORE”, various sizes, 2011
top left :
Baʿal Zəbûb, (small triangle), MDF, screws 30x40 cm, 2011 top right:
Pull-overs for Pineapples, 12 unique pieces, made with the help of Laura Vigna, Icelandic sheep wool, pineapple, 2011 bottom:
Exo-kit Furniture and Altarpiece, copy 1, MDF engineered wood, hinges, nails, screws, coconut, pineapple 150x25x20 cm, 2011
above :
Stele, mdf, brackets, screws 80x150 cm, 2011 following cons :
Columns and offerings, Plaque and Roberto (Raw) mdf, brackets, screws, sombrero and pineapple variable dimensions, 2011
top :
Laptop, (on coffee table) mdf, nails, screws table 70x50 cm in width, height about 60cm, 2011 following cons:
Samples catalog mdf cut into small plates, bolt, nut 15x10 cm, 2011
All Black, work in progress, may-june 2011 >
above and following page: Views of a range of objects being drawn, composed of different furniture found in the street near my studio cleaned, retyped, and painted black or the bomb texture “Granite” various sizes, 2011
This embryonic project seeks to refine the relationship between furniture (bulky) and meditation. My action was reduced to its recontextualization, and concentrated on the recovery of the surface in various arrangements between each object. The black granite or texture recalls the mourning or the monolith, while the object become obsolete will be deprived of his office, and embalmed.to be contemplated
exhibition “Imploded” Berlin, november 2010 >
Installation view “Furniture and offerings for the living”, various sizes, 2010
Pineapple storage, wood, chipboard, Venilia, pineapple, 2010
Meuble exotigothique, (hosting here “Matters,” of artist Mick Dietrich, ceramic balls and braid) ikea furniture abandoned, adhesive paper, pineapple 200x40 cm, 2010
Untitled (improvised piece from elements other pieces), chipboard, Venilia, sombreros, 2010
Urtica & Formica, in the Bäckerei, Innsbruck (AT), july 2011 >
following cons, and following page: Views of the first crop of nettles near the Bäckerei, and integration into a showcase Formica furniture found on site
Urtica & Formica is the first part (and first piece) of a two-parts project. The context of “Celeste Im Berg”, invitation to work in situ in the middle of the Alps, did first generate many wanderings, and the need for a piece made from local samples and salvages. The crop of nettles from around has built a dated Formica furniture in order to form an altar and stinging product container (which could be anti-theft). The second part was the creation of a soup, performance in collaboration with Nicolas Dusollier, which completed the idea of scanning the field in which everyone would find a nutrient (after collectively braved the danger of picking and the stripping, meaning the risk of venomous attacks of such wild plants). Because paradoxically the nettles, which are entirely free on an economic plan, are also extremely virtuous on a nutrition plan.
following cons:
urtica dioica (stinging nettle) - illustrastion Original book source: Prof. Dr. Otto Wilhelm Thomé Flora von Deutschland, Österreich und der Schweiz, 1885
La soupe, realised with Nicolas Dusollier, and thanks to the other fellows of the workshop in the Bäckerei and around, Innsbruck (AT), july 2011 >
following cons: arrival of the car at Bäckerei just before the opening following pages: unloading the car and running performance collectiv nettle stripping, rinse with clear water, preparation and serving the soup with hand-made garlic croutons.
Cyril Aboucaya born 1983 in Suresnes, France lives and works in Paris and Berlin Education 2011 Training in interior architecture, EPSAA, Ivry sur Seine 2007 MFA of Beaux-Arts de Paris 2004 gest student in UdK, Berlin (+post-diplôme in 2008) Workshops/Residencies/ Grants 2008 DAAD program in Berlin 2008 Residency in la Générale (Sèvres) 2008 Jury for admission in Beaux-Arts de Paris 2006 Artist assistant for Mounir Fatmi (until May 2007) 2006 Aide à la création de la direction culturelle de la Ville de Paris (stipend) 2006 Artist assistant for Daniel Buren during the FIAC 2004 OFAJ stipend as exchange student in the Udk 2003 Workshop in Belgrade, Serbia, with painter Sylvie Fanchon. Expositions récentes (sélection) 2011 >, Bateau Lavoir and Cité des Arts, Paris 2011 >, die Bäckerei, Innsbruck (Austria) 2011 >, solo exhibition in galerie Intuiti, Paris 2011 >, Lage Egal 3/20 #4, Berlin 2010 >, french institut, Berlin 2010 >, usine TRACES, Paris 2010 >, Arte Actual, Quito (Ecuador) / Rome (Italia) 2010 >, galerie Intuiti, Paris 2010 >, Stirling Gardens/ Council House, Perth (Australia) 2009 >, Institut français, Berlin 2009 >, La Générale en Manufacture, Sèvres 2009 >, 48 Stunden Neukölln, Berlin 2008 >, La Générale en Manufacture, Sèvres 2008 >, La Générale en Manufacture, Sèvres (solo) 2007 >, Couvent des Cordeliers, Paris 2005 >, kolonie Wedding, Berlin Publications 2009 Ex Situ Magazine, proposed by artist Guillaume Aubry 2007 Cultural magazine of the Alliance française in Bangkok, Thaïland 2007 Pression à Froid, catalog of the show
[email protected] - http://cyrilaboucaya.net
