07 Jun 2010

Evariste Richer 'Caesium' at Kunstverein Braunschweig

Evariste Richer
Caesium
June 5–August 15, 2010

La Galerie Noisy-le-Sec is presenting the Paris-based artist Evariste Richer in his first institutional solo exhibition in Germany within the scope of Thermostat, an exchange project between German art societies and French Centres d'Arts.

In his work, Evariste Richer (*1969 in Montpellier) links his interest in the natural sciences and concepts of space and time, combining their manifestations like a chemist who is empirically testing reactions between elements. An alchemistic approach, for twelve years Richer's work has been characterized by a world viewed in the light of its geological and cosmic elements and in which abstraction and formal simplicity are accompanied by the sublime. The works being presented in the exhibition Caesium reflect a wide variety of physical phenomena and play with the perception of time and space and their measures. Richer places the Remise in Braunschweig in spatial relation to his studio in Paris by the revelation of a Diazo printing serie at scale one of the windowpanes in his studio and using them to create a « mise en abime » of the facade of the Remise. They provide the viewer with a real point of reference for situating the exhibition in terms of a shift in perspective.

The title of the exhibition, Caesium, is borrowed from a chemical element suggestive of a silvery-golden metallic liquid. The alkaline solution has particular significance for the chronometry of atomic clocks and is used by the Observatoire de Paris-Meudon and the national metrology institute Physikalisch-Technisches Bundesanstalt Braunschweig (PTB) to define the standard for time measurement. Richer visited both institutions and developed new photographs and objects based on his experience with the 'chronolaboratories'.

The exhibition is being curated by Marianne Lanavère, director of the La Galerie, Centre d'Art contemporain de Noisy-le-Sec. In exchange, beginning in December 2010 the Kunstverein Braunschweig will be presenting an exhibition of works by the German artist Matti Braun at the Noisy-le-Sec, curated by Hilke Wagner.

The exhibition Evariste Richer. Caesium is taking place within the scope of THERMOSTAT involving twenty-four French centres d'art and German art societies. THERMOSTAT is sponsored by Kulturstiftung des Bundes, as well as Cultural France, Republique francais, d.c.a.

The exhibition Evariste Richer.Caesium is being funded by Niedersächsisches Ministerium für Wissenschaft und Kultur, Robert Bosch Stiftung, BS Energy.