1, 2, 3, couleurs

Palais des Beaux-Arts de Lille, France
October 2023

As part of its actions for inclusion and diversification of its audiences, the Palais des Beaux-Arts de Lille opened a free space for children aged 0 to 6 in the heart of its atrium in the fall of 2023, in partnership with the art initiation center Mille Formes from Clermont-Ferrand. The idea is to provide young children with their first multisensory artistic experience centered around shapes and colors through contemporary artworks.

Alongside Claude Como, I was invited to present my Espaces Manipulables (Manipulable Spaces) project, which was developed in 2022 in collaboration with the art initiation center Mille Formes. Additionally, I was asked to paint the exterior wall of the exhibition space in the museum’s atrium. I executed the generative painting Modo n.°55 in seven days.

Modo n.°55 generative mural painting:

Espaces Manipulables, installation:

“1, 2, 3 couleurs” is a project conceived and supported by the Mediation and Audience Engagement department of the Palais des Beaux-Arts de Lille / City of Lille. It received sponsorship from Rigolo Comme La Vie in collaboration with the We Act for Kids Fond’actions, as well as in-kind sponsorship from Unikalo.

Photos: Eltono

 

Out of Disorder

Antonio Colombo Gallery
Via Solferino, 44, Milan, Italy
December 2022

Out of Disorder is a show about abstraction and how we create our own world around it. Alongside Guido Bisagni (108) and Jeroen Erosie.

Text by Vittorio Parisi:

“To get out of chaos without erasing chaos”: with this phrase, Gilles Deleuze tackled the question of abstract painting, underlining its ability to transform chaos into cosmos, without however allowing the latter to disavow the former. Great abstract painting is, to all effects, a way for force disorder into a form, producing images that do not resemble anything, but precisely for this reason have a universal function. To take this path, the painter has to paradoxically yield part of the control he exerts on material, in order to usher it out from the disorder of the world. This momentary loss of control is the basis for the work of three great exponents of abstract muralism: 108, Eltono and Erosie.

Starting from a shared background – that of graffiti writing – although with three very different approaches to painting, these artists produce forms with the goal of putting the chaos of reality back into an unprecedented order: graphic, dense with signs that simulate letters and pictograms, in the case of Erosie; geometric, the result of a creative process to some extent externalized and open to chance, in the case of Eltono; mystical, inhabited by irregular, spectral forms, in the work of 108. Whether this happens within the boundaries of a wall, a canvas or a sheet of paper, the principle that governs the works in this show does not change, which is the principle of all great abstract art: on the very thin borderline between chaos and cosmos, the realm of pure form begins.

Pictures by Pier Maulini.

Espaces Manipulables

Mille Formes Art Center
23 Rue Fontgieve, Clermont-Ferrand, France
April 2022

Mille Formes is an art initiation center for very young public (0 to 6 years old). It was conceived by the city of Clermont-Ferrand in partnership with the Centre Pompidou.

“Espaces Manipulables” (manipulable spaces) is a set of three interactive and immersive installations which goal is to invite the visitors to take part in the evolution of the artworks around them. A creative immersion that goes in contradiction to the sacralisation of the artwork and that, on the contrary, invites the public to touch, move and experiment with the objects forming the art. Thus making the visitor being art of the artwork and able to observe the results and discover the existing interactions between shapes, colors and space.

Corners of(f) Society

Colab Gallery
Weil am Rhein, Germany
November 2018 – April 2019

Project in collaboration with Luce

Curated by Daniel Künzler

www.colab-gallery.com

After our first collaboration in 2015 that focused on the idea of the periscope and the ability to see through a wall, we did it again with more portable devices and new shapes to try and experiment with them in different situations in the city. The objects were shown alongside pictures of the actions we completed with them.

Periscopes

 

Curator’s text:

On 24th November 2018, the Colab Gallery will openned its doors for the group exhibition “Corners Of(f) Society”, featuring seven international artists that work with, around and in urban areas.

We would like to ask visitors the question how and why places function, and which impact the geographical environment has on perception and behavior. If you have, e.g., several possibilities to reach a supermarket, you would choose a certain route according to your mood.

During your daily life, you efficiently choose the shortest way, that unfortunately leads along a noisy, four-lane road. Then again, you deliberately look for a route, that leads you away from the actual place of destination taking you to interesting places, an abandoned house, an open terrain or a park at the city’s´ outskirts. However, losing your orientation and just strolling along, can also be seen as something positive, something that triggers your thirst for adventure and allows unexpected things to happen. Every one of us has his daily rituals, that are not only determined by functionality.

You can tell stories about some places, others you will seek because you feel comfortable there or because you are striving for a certain mood, or because the atmosphere and aura there bring back memories. Wandering around means getting lost, being active, collecting things you find in the street, getting onto a metro, the next bus and climbing out somewhere else, having deleted the common reason for getting from A to B. It means actively soaking up the terrain, the people, the animals or the trash in the streets. Without perspectives and intention, there is more to discover.

The participating artists show with alert eyes aesthetic glances of cities, peripheries, and surprising encounters. We are looking forward to present the works of Relfy (Can), Cyop & Kaf (It), Swampy (Usa), Bruno Rodrigues & Fábio Vieira (Bra), Road Dogs (Fr), Raskalov & Makhorov (Rus), LUCE & Eltono (Es).

Thanks a lot to Danny, K100, Marc and to the whole Colab crew..

La Ville et le Mouvement

Le Pilori visual arts space
Place du Pilori, Niort, France
September 27th – November 10th 2017
Exhibition organised for the 4e mur festival by Winterlong gallery.
Participating Artists: Jeroen Jongeleen and Eltono

www.winterlong-galerie.com

Détours

Six 20 minute random itineraries starting from the exhibition space door. At each intersection, a die is used to determine where to go. The result is materialised by six painted wooden sculptures.

RUFO

A painting is dragged in the street, with the painted side facing the floor. The route, a loop in the city, is fixed beforehand. The board is exhibited as if with a map showing the route.

G.A.S

Horizontal printing system using street movements. Each print is exposed to traffic for at least an hour.

Photos: Eric Surmont et Eltono
Videos: Victor Thiré

Downshifting

Redline Contemporary Art Center
2350 Arapahoe Street, Denver, U.S.A.
June 30th – July 23rd 2017

Modo n.º19

 

Curated by Ramón Bonilla, Downshifting is a group exhibition that calls attention to the meditative quality of reductive art, which encompasses minimal, post-minimal, hard edge and geometrical work. Reductive art work is typically explored in terms of formal qualities like medium, rarely conjuring conversations that respond or reflect on political realities. For many artists around the globe, however, reductive work can provide a sanctuary from the hyperactivity and sensory-flooding that has come to be our everyday reality.

Working with 12 internationally-based abstract and minimalist artists, Downshifting will transform RedLine’s 6,000-square-foot exhibition hall into a sanctuary of abstract works with programming that explores sensory deprivation rather than spectacle and provocation.

Participating Artists:
Eltono (France)
Louyse Blyton (Australia)
Ramón Bonilla (Puerto Rico)
Sandra Fettingis (USA)
Andrew Huffman (USA)
Kristofer Hultenberg (Denmark)
Michael Mork (Denmark)
Gary Andrew Clarke (England)
Ashley Frazier (USA)
SEIKON (Poland)
Hyland Mather (USA)
Frank T. Martinez (USA)

www.redlineart.org

Modo n.º19

Downshifting collective exhibition
Redline Contemporary Art Center
2350 Arapahoe Street, Denver, U.S.A.
June 30th – July 23rd 2017

Curated by Ramón Bonilla, Downshifting is a group exhibition that calls attention to the meditative quality of reductive art, which encompasses minimal, post-minimal, hard edge and geometrical work. Reductive art work is typically explored in terms of formal qualities like medium, rarely conjuring conversations that respond or reflect on political realities. For many artists around the globe, however, reductive work can provide a sanctuary from the hyperactivity and sensory-flooding that has come to be our everyday reality.

Working with 12 internationally-based abstract and minimalist artists, Downshifting will transform RedLine’s 6,000-square-foot exhibition hall into a sanctuary of abstract works with programming that explores sensory deprivation rather than spectacle and provocation.

Participating Artists:
Eltono (France)
Louyse Blyton (Australia)
Ramón Bonilla (Puerto Rico)
Sandra Fettingis (USA)
Andrew Huffman (USA)
Kristofer Hultenberg (Denmark)
Michael Mork (Denmark)
Gary Andrew Clarke (England)
Ashley Frazier (USA)
SEIKON (Poland)
Hyland Mather (USA)
Frank T. Martinez (USA)

www.redlineart.org

Venturing Beyond

Somerset House
London, U.K.
Exhibition curated by A by P
3 March – 2 May 2016

Footpaths
Four 15′ walking performances
Black ink on 285 g. Fabriano Rosaspina paper 100 x 70 cm, 2′ video


Rules:

  1. The participant of the action selects an area of public space and defines a specific time period.
  2. The perimeter of this predefined space is then circled in a clockwise fashion.
  3. When an outsider visible to the participant enters the perimeter, the participant must immediately attempt to reach the outsider’s point of intrusion.
  4. If the perimeter is further breached  during the attempt to reach the initial intruder’s entry point, this subsequent point becomes the new target.
  5. Once an intrusion point is reached, the participant continues circling the perimeter until either a further intruder enters or the time limit is reached.
  6. Finally a drawing is generated; a testimony to the footpath experience.

www.a-by-p.com
www.somersethouse.org.uk/visual-arts/venturing-beyond