Lot 16: MICHEL FRANÇOIS

MICHEL FRANÇOIS BELGIAN B. 1956 RETENUE D'EAU (WATER RETAINMENT) 1998 plastic, wire, water and iron edition 1/1 AP from an edition of 2 + 1 AP diameter 120 cm / 47.24"

Some recent solo exhibitions
IAC, Villeurbanne 2010, 'Plans d'évasion'
SMAK, Ghent 2009, 'Plans d'évasion'
Galerie Xavier Hufkens, Brussels 2009
Musée de Lausanne, 2009, 'Hespéride'
Stefania Bortolami Gallery, New York 2008
Thomas Dane Gallery, London 2008
Galerie carlier | gebauer, Berlin 2006

Some recent group exhibitions
Sonsbeek 2008, Arnhem 2008, 'Grandeur'
MUHKA, Antwerp 2007, 'Who's got the Big Picture?'
Galerie nationale du Jeu de Paume, Paris 2004, 'L'Ombre du temps'
Biennale di Venezia, Venice 2001

Selected publications
Guillaume Desanges [et al.], Michel François: Plans d'évasion, Ghent: SMAK/Roma Publications 2010
Michael Palmer, Belgische kunst, van Ensor tot Panamarenko, Tielt: Lannoo 2004
Hans Theys, Michel François: carnet d'expositions 1999-2002, Münster: Westfälischer Kunstverein 2002

Selected public and corporate collections
MUHKA, Antwerp, BE • SMAK, Ghent, BE • Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris, FR • Musée d'Art Moderne et Contemporain, Strasbourg, FR • Mamco, Geneva, CH • Fotomuseum Winterthur, CH

donated by the artist

Generating new meanings for existing images and commonplace situations is central to the work of Michel François. Here, he employs a variety of media ranging from photography, video, sculpture and installation, often in collaboration with other artists. His work explicitly investigates the relationship between work and space, images and architecture, nature and culture.
François is concerned with more than simply a presentation form: it is a key concept that has been at the heart of his work of the last twenty five years. His extensive oeuvre is organised in different thematic clusters. A sculpture or variants of one and the same sculpture can be part of different clusters. The underlying idea is that the variable 'meaning' of each sculpture is dependent on the confrontation with other sculptures, the space in which they are displayed and they way in which they relate to this space. The work of Michel François consists of snapshots within a process of stratification whereby the individual works serve as linguistic elements. They are nomadic building blocks which, in ever-changing relationships, create new associations. The exploration of the constant evolution of the clusters, the way in which recent sculptures acquired a place within them and how these clusters can be presented in their multiplicity, are crucial concerns.

Michel François is advisor at the Rijksakademie.