Bigaignon
Fernando Marante (en dialogue avec Hans Kooi)
Ballet Mécanique
Variation 140 Photograph (2021), Pigment ink on Fine Art Hahnemühle PhotoRag Baryta paper 315gsm 75 x 60 cm Edition 3 + 1AP
It is with great excitement that we prepare to introduce you to the work of Fernando Marante, shown for the first time at the gallery, in an exhibition focused on movement, named after Fernand Léger’s famous experimental film (1924). This « Ballet Mécanique”, driven by the need for research, invention and experimentation with the very materiality of the cinematographic device, perfectly illustrates the intention of transfiguring time and movement into a visual essay that the images of Fernando Marante evoke. His work will dialogue with the works of the artist Hans Kooi.
In his quest, Fernando tries to demonstrate visually, in a unique manner, the fact that existence is only a speculation, that an image would not be visible between two given times. Through movement, the artist uses time as a tool to formally play with variation, multiplication and addition, contraction and distension, accumulation and disintegration. He creates images that are patterns of intent, visual imprints of all the decisions made during the photographic process.
Movement, duration and accumulation are manifestations of time. Time flows voraciously, unwinding an endless line of perpetual “nows.” It is a powerful abstraction and yet we feel it in every aspect of our lives and thoughts. If we experience time as an uninterrupted fugue, and we know that the camera allows us to capture this movement to some extent, how can we use it to reveal the persistence of the things around us? In other words, how do we find the images we assume exist between the thin slices of existence that snapshots offer us?
These are the questions that lead Fernando Marante to want to fix the visual manifestation of an idea, transferring a speculation born of language into a medium that belongs to the world of the senses. To bridge the two realities, each series begins with a possibility: What happens if an object is subjected to a reaction related to time? To initiate the process, the Portuguese artist builds temporary devices to induce movement to pieces of paper, plastic, glass, metal cables or lights, using electric motors, fans or his own body. And then he waits for an image to occur, unpredictable. These uncontrollable variables generate what he calls his “image-hypotheses ».
He is interested in creating in the viewer the perception that there is a process. Ultimately, each image is a map of the decisions he makes in creating them and that is the only narrative he allows in his photographs.
From Calder’s mobiles to the optical-kinetic works of Vasarely or François Morellet, kinetic art encompasses a wide variety of overlapping techniques and styles, and with his post-photography, Fernando Marante approaches the possibilities of materials, questioning the mechanics of visibility while exploring what remains between the possible and the desired.
Alongside the images of Fernando Marante will be exhibited, with the collaboration of the Denise René gallery, a couple of works by Hans Kooi, one of the most important artist of the kinetic art
movement.
Exhibition from April 18 to May 28, 2023.
Rendez-Vous
Sunday 28 May 2023 from 2:00 pm to 6:00 pm
Last day of the exhibition of Fernando Marante
Paris, France 0183560582 bigaignon.com
The gallery
Bigaignon is a light-sensitive contemporary art gallery. The line of the gallery finds its roots in the avant-garde movements of light and space, minimalism, abstract art, concrete photography and constructivism, and is built upon the strong conviction that photography has entered a new era. Profoundly engaged in the promotion of artists who work with the fundamental elements of light and time, whatever the medium they use, the gallery is contributing to the rise of a new avant-garde. As such, with a strong international focus, it defends and promotes the unique vision of artists it represents or supports, whether they be emerging, mid-career or established worldwide, in their quest to propose a new visual vocabulary, challenge the photographic medium and explore the full extent of its possibilities.
Gallery artists
Anne-Camille Allueva, Lionel Bayol-Thémines, Catherine Balet, Renato D'Agostin, Máté Dobokay, Harold Feinstein, Vittoria Gerardi, Ralph Gibson, Yannig Hedel, Hideyuki Ishibashi, Bernard Joubert, Morvarid K, Denis Malartre, Fernando Marante, Rémi Noël, Thomas Paquet, Jean de Pomereu, Aleksandra Vajd, Thierry Urbain
