Painting Container La presqu’île * 반도
Painting Container La presqu’île *
Jérôme BOUTTERIN Olivier GOURVIL Soo Kyoung LEE
반도
Early January 2015, we received confirmation that our project Painting Container was selected for a three months artist residency at Gyeonggi Creation Center. We can say today that our project was encapsulated in two words : painting, container. And nothing more, but a trip. In our fantasy, and through Google map, this West coast of South Korea (Yellow Sea) was a wide harbour area, more or less artificial and industrial, just like Rotterdam polders, a kind of Photoshop landscape. But it turned out to be irrelevant. Moreover, some day, we realized that Gyeonggi Creation Center was located in a quite large peninsula linked to the continent by an isthmus, a long and narrow road. On a map the road looked like liable to floading or perhaps a kind of bridge from the island to the continent. Moreover, after few calculations it seemed that it should take 2 or 3 hours to get to Seoul, by bus and subway.
If we want to appropriate the notion of container it is because we paint like a container : autonomy of language, heterogeneity of items, moving from a place to another, compactness of the frame. Painting Container team, Daebudo, Summer 2015
The peninsula as geographical concept, is a fragment of territory attached to a wider territory. The peninsula is a figure of unity that is articulated to a whole. Our paintings like geographical shapes makes sense in connection to other territories : language, history, mediums... Our work shows the constitution of a subject, a singularity, as an island, from a larger area. A peninsula, an isthmus, a container, a studio... finally all this perfectly suits the individual activity of the painter. Because we work out a constant paradox: to be alone to be together. Get locked to open. There is something compact in the activity of the painter and the container offers the image of this closing, this compactness, in terms of density.
* Presqu’île is the french term for peninsula
PAINTING CONTAINER JÉRÔME BOUTTERIN
BPPB 28, 2015, oil on canvas, 146 x 114 cm
A change of air
Naturally, having painted with only one colour, I wanted all the colours. Naturally, after filling the surface I wanted to concentrate everything. Naturally, after diluting the paint I searched for texture. Naturally, it had to happen. A change of air. And it has been a long time coming. I only noticed later that this voluntary act of starting a painting from a smear of paint has been on my mind for a while. I finally understood, when I found a collection of small paintings, around ten years old, in my studio where I used to practice this process. I want to insist on this event of beginning, an introduction, there is nor a first, second or third chapter to follow. No development to reflect upon. To stay in the moment where things just begin. No preoccupation of what could come next… Or maybe just a little bit, not too much. A collection of paint blemishes, that look like left overs on an artists palette. A place where the colours start to mix and become one, and we think to ourselves. This is great, I can stop here, I can reflect upon this small fragment of a surface. It’s enough. But, it’s still not quite enough, it’s still not quite there yet. To use this accumulation of multicoloured marks, to use this concentrated state of painterly matter, as if it was a reservoir. To allow its body of paint two or three escape routes. Lightweight, airy these escape routes are alternative beginnings. Something could take place, but this time from a different starting point. The first attempts of a line, the start of a drawing.
Now to escape from this concentrated state of surface using the least material possible. For this sanctuary of paint to be self sufficient, utilising its own matter, expanding, becoming thinner and thinner as the line advances, until it dissolves. A game with one simple rule, to entertain the space of the painting with this solitary process. To only play twice, the smear and the line. Double six and double one. (….du fond d’un naufrage…, he said) * What comes away or maybe what returns is within the lines, always the lines. Straight, curved, determined or hesitant. It’s the start of a drawing. However, this is only a beginning. Then to step back from the opaqueness of the colour, the blemish as an impenetrable nights sky. Here enters the adversary, the skeleton form. Glueing its paradoxal self. This creates a curious duo. Heavy from one side, light from the other, wonky, wavering, careless. A duo that can never agree. This conflict of position ricochets back and forth across the surface of the painting. This surface is in actual fact, a field. It is no longer a painting, it is a plane where the duo can safely land together and the conversation may commence. This field of space is not by pure chance though. Our brain understands the limits of a field. Without this field, without this frame, these limitations to the painting, we wouldn’t be able to acknowledge the landing and coming together of two events, only randomness. This way of anchoring the drawing and its other while forgetting the field is there, is a process that allows us to experience the beauty of landing.
I agree with what Olivier was saying in the studio : « The sketch has the same value as the painting. The sketch deconstructs the painting. The painting tries to inflate itself, tries to compact itself, whereas the sketch eases this inflation, in a boarder comical way. The gesture (the all mighty gesture) solidified then ran away.» This smear, it isn’t really a smear. It is a condensed state of paint. A deep well of possibilities. It is the origin of the drawing. The lines are extracted from its body. To invert the process: the drawing after the painting. Invert the order of things. Like a bored child who is drawing from a blob of ketchup, sketching the first lines of the unknown. Naturally.
Jérôme Boutterin, Daebudo, été 2015. Translation : Galina Munroe
* « A Throw of the Dice will Never Abolish Chance », Stéphane Mallarmé, 1897.
BPPB 32, 2015, oil on canvas, 162 X 130 cm
PAINTING CONTAINER OLIVIER GOURVIL
On the paintings
« Gourvil’s anthropomorphism is filtered through an immense repertoire of sign-struc- tures, some sifted through urban signs or the signs of the body as seen in comics or gra- phics. Some of the paintings’ forms can have the look of architectural plans, pre-fabricated design units, the bulbous forms of graffiti or elements from modernist painting. These are usually intertwined with Gourvil’s emphatic linear demarcations of diagrammatic volumes and his playful sense of protuberance and organicism. This emphasis on drawing in space and the clarity of line leads to an almost icon-like presentation of form – with their centrally focused events, concentrated form, and anthropomorphic connotations. If the traditional notion of the icon is rooted in resemblance (in its usual context, the copy of a divine original, the copy providing a material link to the original, thus ensuing a transference of presence) then in Gouvil’s painting this implication is reversed. Through the processes of drawing - developing into painting - he is searching out a fecundity of form and connotation that has no basis in an original underlying model”
David Ryan, Reader at Cambridge School of Art (UK) published in «Almostbutnot Quite »
Magic of Ornette, 2015, oil and acrylic, 162 x130cm When I had finished this painting, I have just heard, through a friend based in New York, the announcement of Ornette Coleman’s death. It is a kind of hommage to this great musician that I have seen many times in concert.
In Zaha mood, 2015, oil and acrylic, 116x91cm This title refers to my first experience of Zaha Hadid’s space and buildings when I have seen them in Seoul on May 2014, I was very impressed by its impact. An architecture free with lines, shapes and curves.
Cobalt Combination, 2015, oil and acrylic, 33x41cm The colbalt violet is a color I like, but I have realized that there are only few possiblities of use in my work. The small size painting is appropriate to this.
PAINTING CONTAINER SOO KYOUNG LEE
THIS SOMETHING TO SEE
First meeting with an artist and a work. A work dominated by temporality given by the artist herself. In Soo Kyoung Lee’s paintings, everything begins with a monochrome surface designed to be coated with various elements, which are many organs conferring an existence upon her works. “Ils ont regardé Matisse” was the premise of an exhibition held in 2009 at the Musée Matisse in Le Cateau- Cambrésis. It displayed the creations by Barnett Newman. Soo Kyoung Lee is so interested in. On that occasion, she fully perceived the decorative power – in the positive sense of the word – in Matisse’s creations. In the process, she accepted her own pictorial ambivalence, her “natures mortes innommables” (unnameable still lives). However, Soo Kyoung Lee added a disruptive element to her compositions, which could have simply been seductive. Yet, this element has recently disrupted the order defined by the artist so far, that is the organization of a pictorial space strictly de- termined by the frame of the painting. New realities appear to the viewer’s eye : they can be cut, they can even “come out” of the canvas, giving the whole work a new rhythm. The realities represented in the painting are multiplied severalfold. The elements play a different part according to the size of the work : if Soo Kyoung Lee decides to paint on large formats, the elements tend to “float” in the monochrome ; as soon as she chooses smaller formats, entanglements become so conspicuous that their presence inevitably catches the viewer’s eye. The recent triptych by Soo Kyoung Lee refers to another space
she keeps cutting and manipulating. The question of transparency, which was already obvious in her work, arises again. A question is followed by another, so that the viewer wonders in which direction to go. Instead of taking a necessary break after going through a very busy period, the artist prefers keeping on painting on small formats. She playfully explains these creations are “paintings for dummies” ; she also insists on the importance of that intermediate moment during which she has doubts about everything, including her very ability to paint. Painting on small formats enables her to indulge in experiments because nothing has been laid down, everything is allowed, not to mention that such a process functions a whole.These small formats can be compared to “laborato- ries” or many pages of a thought notebook. But what becomes of the drawing itself in all this ? Shapes spread out on the white sur- face of the paper sheet, thus revealing Soo Kyoung Lee’s new thoughts, such as : “Le pa- pier me donne ces sensations de familiarité, d’affection” (Paper gives me these feelings of intimacy and affection). Gradual shifts from monochrome to brushed effects, elements which disrupt and enliven the paintings, entanglements and superimpositions, rhythms which are reversed according to the formats chosen and the techniques used, represent the layers of this “something” we should take the time to see.
Based on the French text by Fanny Drugeon, April 2015.
GCC P1, 2015, Acrylic on canvas, 162 x 130 cm
GCC P2, 2015, Acrylic on canvas, 118 x 89 cm
GCC P3, 2015, Acylic on canvas, 146 x 114cm
Petit Orange, 2015, Acrylic on canvas, 116 x 89 cm
GCC Bleu céruléum, 2015, Acrylic on canvas, 116 x 89
GCC vert troublé, 2015, Acrylic, 162 x 130 cm
Soo Kyoung Lee, born in 1969 in Seoul, South Korea, works in Bagnolet (93). She regularly shows her work between France, Korea and Germany. She has given numerous solo and group exhibitions : L’H du siège,Valen- ciennes France 2010 / UM gallery Seoul 2011 / Gallery Uhn Köingstein Germany 2011 / Carré Noir Art Center,Amiens France 2012 / Cj Art Studio, Cheong Ju, South Korea 2013 / Abbey de Coat Malouen Art Center, Ker- pert, France 2013 / Anywhere Gallery, Paris France 2014 / Artside Gallery Seoul South Korea in 2014 / Chapelle du Collège, Art Center, Eu, France / Renate Kamer Gallery, Hambourg, Germany / POCTB, Art Center, Orélans, France / Djeziri-Bonn Gallery, Paris, France etc. She also participes International Art fairs and KIAF, Korea / 21 Artfair, Koln, Germany / CAR, Essen, Germany / Affordable Art Fair, Hamburg / Hotel Art Fair, Hong Kong / Scope Basel, Swiss / Hampton Art Fair, NY, USA. Her works were recently acquired by the Colas Foundation and the Municipal Founda- tion, Gentilly (94) France. Residency : Source, Geurould, France / Cj Art Studio, Cheongju, Korea / Domaine de Ker- guéhennec, Bretagne, France / GCC, Gyung gi , Korea.
Yellow Shift, 2015, oil and acrylic, 33x41 cm The shifting is a part of my work, particularly through the shapes, the lines
Beyond, 2015 and acrylic, 162 x 130 cm Beyond is the idea of going further, of crossing. The white vertical background is like a gap to be jumped.
On the drawings
« In this series, all the drawings are vertical. I assume that superimposing of layers as well as intensity of pencil marks lead to a landscape as a scenic combination.Verticality emphasizes the fallings, the crossings, within a narrow horizon.There are some marks in the space of a sheet paper combined with rapid flows of lines, from a point to another : porous surface, infiltrations, flows, body, signs and chaos. Looking at these drawings a friend of mine said « Deleuzean abstract machines » which makes sense in terms of connectivity. Shiftings : a road which is a line, becoming a vanishing point, after a complete 180° switch ( I am familiar with working by switching up and down, which has to do, in my mind, with a mapping from above). A shack, as well as a contemporary architecture (the Dongdaemun Design Plaza in Seoul for instance), a river, a screen, a microphone, a container.....Huge spaces and small devices, all take part into the making of drawing as a nowadays experience. » On the drawings, statement. Olivier Gourvil, July 6th, 2015
Gyeonggi Series, N° 3, 2015, pencil and graphite on paper, 100 x 65 cm
Olivier Gourvil is an artist based in Paris. He has participated in South Korea, to a series of shows called Tome 2 at CJ ART Studio, at UM Gallery and Art Side Gallery (2014), accompanied by the publication of a catalogue. Recent shows include Mécanique du dessin at Fonds régional d’art contemporain Limou- sin (2014), 4 Paintings at International Studio and Curatorial Program, New York (2013), and Pencil on Paper at Poppy Sebire Gallery, London (2012). His work will be exhibited at Seoul Art Fairs 2015 by Art Side Gallery. His drawings will be shown at Painting Container exhibition at UM Gallery (2015). Olivier Gourvil’s paintings and drawings have been purchased by many prestigious institutions in France, including Fonds Na- tional d’Art Contemporain (FNAC ); Fonds régional d’art contemporain Ile-de-France; Fonds régional d’art contemporain Bretagne; Artothèque d’Auxerre, France; Artothèque du Limousin, France, Fonds municipal d’art contemporain, Paris, Bibliothèque Nationale de France (BNF), Paris. And also private col- lectors including Axa Group, Moments Artis- tiques, Louis Doucet collection... He has a teaching position at ESAD Gre- noble-Valence art school, and he is responsible of Réseau Peinture, an international research network. He received grants and awards including Fif- th Floor Foundation, New York, Villa Medicis Hors les Murs/, New York, ISCP, Fonds d’incitation à la création, Prix de la Fondation Rocheron.
BPPB 32, 2015, oil on canvas, 162 X 130 cm.
BPPB 31, 2015, oil on canvas, 146 X 114 cm
BPPB 30, 2015, oil on canvas, 116 x 89 cm
BPPB 29, 2015, oil on canvas, 162 x 130 cm
Jérôme Boutterin works and lives in Paris. Last solo exhibitions : Studio Christophe Pillet, Paris, Galerie Djeziri-Bonn, Paris, Centre d’Art de Kerguéhennec, Bretagne, Ecole des beaux-arts de Valence et d’Angers, Galerie Andrieu, Berlin. Recent group show : « Couleurs abstraites », Abbaye de Granville, Frac Haute Normandie- « cherchez le garçon » Musée d’art contemporain du Val de Marne, Macval-Tome 2, CJ Artstudio, Choengju, Artside and Um gallery, Séoul. He was selected for a group show « de notre Temps », 2014, Nantes, by Adiaf, a famous association of french collectors. Few personnal catalogues are devoted to his work. He’s teaching Art at Ecole Nationale Supérieure d’Architecture de Versailles. His work is represented in many public collections : Fonds national d’art contemporain, Fonds régionaux d’art contemporain d’Ile de France et de Normandie.
Painting Container La presqu’île *
제롬 부트랭 올리비에 고빌 이수경
반도
2015년 일월 초, 우리는 프로젝트 그룹으로서의 <페인팅 컨테이너>가
우리가 컨테이너의 개념을 수용하려 한다면 그것은 우리가
경기창작센터에서의 3개월 레지던시 입주작가로 선택되었다는 연락을
컨테이너처럼 작업하고자 하기 때문이다. 언어의 자율성, 아이템의
받았다. 현재 이 프로젝트는 두 단어로 요약해 설명할 수 있을 것 같다 :
다양성, 한 장소에서 다른 장소로의 이동성,
페인팅, 컨테이너. 이 둘은 여행 그 이상의 의미는 갖지 않는다.
그리고 프레임의 간편함을 위해 말이다.
우리의 환상을 통해, 그리고 구글 맵을 통해 살펴본 한국의 서해안(황해)은
페인팅 컨테이너,
로테르담 간척지처럼 인위적이고 산업적인 모습이었는데,
대부도, 여름 2015
흡사 포토샵된 풍경처럼 보였다. 하지만 실제로는 그 모든 것들과는 관련이 없다는 사실을 깨달았다. 무엇보다도, 우리는 경기창작센터가 지협, 즉 길고 좁은 시화방조제를 통해 내륙과 연결된 꽤 넓은 반도의 일부에 위치해 있다는 것을 알게 되었다. 얼핏 지도상으로 봤을 때 시화방조제는 바다에 잠겨 있거나 내륙과 섬을 연결하는 다리처럼 보이기도 했다. 창작센터는 버스와 지하철을 통해 서울까지 2 ~ 3시간이 걸릴 것으로 예상되었다. 지형적인 개념으로서 반도는 큰 영토에 붙어있는 조그만 조각이다. 반도는 하나로 귀속되는 단일성의 상징이다. 우리의 회화작업들은 반도의 지형적인 형태처럼, 예를 들어 언어, 역사, 매체의 역할이 그러하듯이 회화를 통해 다른 영역들로 연결될 수 있다는데 의미가 있다. 우리의 작업은 넓은 영역의 일부분이지만 개성적인 객체인 섬처럼, 주제나 소재에 있어 독특한 특성을 보여준다. 반도, 지협, 컨테이너, 스튜디오, 결국은 이 모든 것들이 완벽하게 작가의 개인적인 행위와 일치한다. 왜냐하면 우리들은 끊임없이 모순에 빠진 채, 다시 말해 함께 존재하기 위한 개인이 되기 때문이다. 이렇게 작가의 행위 안에는 간편함이 있고, 컨테이너는 단단한 밀도를 위해 간편함을 수용하는 역할을 한다.
* 프랑스어로 Presqu’île는 '반도'라는 의미이다.
Painting Container La presqu’île *
반도 2015.08.10 - 08.24
기획 경기창작센터 총괄진행 서정문 진행 박정호, 배남우, 박슬기, 강민지 행정지원 황순주, 채정민, 차영근, 최보라 큐레이터 어시스턴트 라정식 시설지원 박문철, 김원철, 박종호, 김남영, 조관휘, 박종원, 강제을, 김병완, 김일용, 심종범, 김옥엽, 유일순, 이정숙, 신진영 그래픽 디자인 / 인쇄
편집인 경기창작센터장 서정문 발행인 경기문화재단 대표이사 조창희 발행처 경기창작센터
Organized by Gyeonggi Creation Center Publication in Charge Jeong-Moon Seo Curatorial Support Jeong-Ho Park, Namwoo Bae, Seulki Park, Min-Ji Kang Administrative Support Soon-Joo Hwang, Jeong-Min Chae, Young Kun Cha, Bo-Ra Choi Assistant Curator Jeong-Sik Ra Maintenance Support Park Moon Chul, Kim Won Chul, Park Jong Ho, Kim Nam Young, Cho Kwan Hui, Park Jong Won, Kang Jae Ul, Kim Byong Wan, Kim Il Yong, Sim Jong Bum, Kim Ok Yeup, You Il Soon, Lee Jeong Sook, Sin Jin Young Graphic Design / Printing
발행일 2015. 8. 10.
Editor Jeong-Moon Seo Director of Gyeonggi Creation Center
본 출판물은 2015 경기창작센터 해외작가 입주결과 발표전 <Painting Container> 도록으로 경기창작센터에서 발행하였습니다. 본 권에 실린 글과 도판은 경기창작센터의 동의 없이 무단으로 사용할 수 없습니다.
Publisher Chang Hee Cho President of Gyeonggi Cultural Foundation
ⓒ경기창작센터 경기도 안산시 단원구 선감로 101-19 T. 032-890-4820 F. 032-890-4880 http://gcc.ggcf.kr Twitter @creation_center Facebook Creationcenter
Date of Publishing 5, August, 2015 This leaflet is published in conjunction with the special exhibition <Painting Container> of 2015 and GCC artists’ activities. No part of this book may be reproduced or utilized in any means without permission of Gyeonggi Creation Center.
ⓒGyeonggi Creation Center 101-19 Seongam-Ro, Fanwon-gu, Ansan-si, Gyeonggi-do, Korea T. 82.32.890.4820 F. 82.32.890.4880 http://gcc.ggcf.kr Twitter @Creation_center Facebook Creationcenter