Art stations fundation - by Grażyna Kulczyk

Loris Greaud (b. 1979) is one of the most original French artists of the young generation. He draws inspiration from the latest technologies and the formative experiences of the 21st century science. A cross-disciplinary artist, who often collaborates on the conceptual and technical side of his realizations with experts in various scientific fields and art-related disciplines, such as architecture or film.

The explorations which the artist undertakes in his numerous video and sound installations are oriented towards “the process”, often leaving aside concerns with the finished form. His activity is inspired by the will to discover new spaces for thought and experimentation. Greaud's works are often perceived as “activities” performed in the utopian or futurist spirit. He is an artist who, as he once said, “doesn't believe in art”, and yet perfectly finds himself and functions within its indistinct boundaries.

His works have been featured in numerous exhibitions, e.g. at Kunst Halle Sankt Gallen, Institute of Contemporary Arts London, Palais de Tokyo, Paris, Centre Pompidou Musée National d´Art Moderne, Paris , Yvon Lambert Paris, New Museum of Contemporary Art, New York. In 2005 Loris Greaud received the Ricard Prize – a prize awarded each year by a committee of French collectors to a French artist under 40 for the most innovative work.

During the exhibition in Art Stations we will have a chance to see a four-part installation “Nothing is True Everything is Permitted” from 2007. It consists of 26 works on paper featuring 26 stellar constellations, a large sculpture-object in the form of an unfolded Dymaxion Map (inspired with Buckminster Fuller's projection of the globe from 1943), a video showing how a heated corn seed turns into an irregularly-shaped popcorn and, finally, a carpet with a geometric pattern designed especially to fit the installation space at the same time defining its borders.

In a separate presentation we will show the video documentation of “Bucky” (2007) – a project realized by Greaud in the desert areas of Colorado. Equipped with adequate technological devices, he traced the location of nine stars and then linked them by laser light to form an unique intergalactic drawing with based on reoccurring triangular and rhomboidal structures of Fuller.

It is the first individual exhibition of Loris Greaud in Poland and, at the same time, the first exhibition which contextualizes his work with the oeuvre of another artist, whose works are on show in a parallel exhibition. The artist in question is Buckminster Fuller, American scientist, inventor and designer, whose theories and practice acted as a strong inspiration for Greaud. There is no denying that both of Greaud's pieces presented in the exhibition have been to a large extent inspired by Fuller, yet, in both cases, in the installation as well as the video work, features of Greaud unique style are strongly present too – visible on the level of both interpretation and production. Looking way ahead to the future, Greaud's works continue pursuing exciting, unconventional paths in art...