When I went to les Rencontres d'Arles I ended up the day with l'Abbaye de Montmajour. Because inside was shown the special command of Elger Esser and also the Instants d'été (Summer Moment) exhibition.
I have read this :
" The Provence-Alpes-Côte d’Azur Regional Collection of Contemporary Art (FRAC) is partnering this event: Laurent Grasso's video installation “Soyez les bienvenus” (“Welcome”), which it acquired in 2002, will be shown at the Abbaye de Montmajour.
In counterpoint, a set of photographs will be presented as well as the film " Firefly ", co-produced and acquired by FRAC in 2008. It was made on a journey between Marseille and northern Scotland on board a Peugeot 504 fitted with a fuchsia light box. The car is a sculpture that Pierre Malphettes moves around a mapped space, enabling landscapes to be explored differently – by those who see the sculpture-vehicle moving through the landscape, and by the film's viewers.
The film explores the notion of sculpture and its relationship with the landscape, no longer as a motif and environment to be recreated by the sculpted elements themselves, but as an environment that the sculpture inhabits, disrupts and puts on show while retaining its own minimalist visual vocabulary. "
But in between sign and signifier, he opens up tiny chinks that allow a minimalist dialogue. Never resorting to the spectacular, Pierre Malphettes works on the relationship between the artefact and nature, shaking the boundary that separates them. He thus returns the artefact to its naturalness and nature to its artificiality. The artist has made The Tube the setting for this strange atmosphere, where genres, categories and hierarchies are confused, and within which the fragments of landscape echo one other.
The diversity in Malphettes' work is his strength. There is a common point between all these pieces, the relation between nature and what is artificial. I especially love " le nuage de verre " which was so delicate and powerful. I saw when the FRAC presented earlier this year a great exhibition with Malphettes' work.
His objects are dealing with mystery, with elegance and simplicity, he shows us what is strange in the common things of life.
