Generative and collective wall painting
Quartier Saint-Jacques, Clermont-Ferrand, France
June 2023
Project commissioned and organized by Pauline Simon for the city of Clermont-Ferrand. 220 participants from three primary schools in the neighborhood.
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.
Generative and collective painting
Saint-Cyprien Middle School, France
June/July 2022
20 participants
Aleatory sequence of four colors alternated with white. Project commissioned by the College of Saint-Cyprien with the participation of the Departmental Cultural Agency Dordogne-Périgord.
Aleatory Stamp Compositions
Archival ink on 300 g. Gvarro paper.
3 colors, 20 x 18 cm. (7,8 x 7 inches).
The 9x(3C8F4R) compositions are composed of three layers stamped one on top of the other, each one of a different color. First layer is yellow, second one is red and third one is blue. For each layer, the shapes and their rotation are randomly generated. The 9x(3C8F4R) protocol works on a 3 x 3 grid with 8 shapes (including an empty one) and 4 rotations. The protocol is rigorously followed and the final result is never known before the end. Each composition is unique.
Process pictures:
SET Espai d’Art (at Galería Nueva)
Madrid, Spain
October 2021
For the solo show Desperfectos, I presented three projects: Plotter de paseo (walking plotter), Transportistas (shippers) y Chaparrones (rain showers).
Following my research around the idea of making art while walking, I made a walking plotter that uses gravity and my body’s movements to activate some mechanisms and create drawings from my paths.
I built five boxes to ship five artworks from my studio in France to the gallery in Madrid. A box is meant to protect the art, but I painted the art on the outside of it. Instead of protecting, the box helps the deterioration of the art. I imagined this project as a collaboration between the shipping companies and me. I built, painted and handled the boxes with maximum care until the very moment I handed them over to the shipper. At that point I lost control of their condition. I was only able to discover the result when I arrived at the gallery in Madrid.
– T1 and T2 were sent with La Poste (Colissimo),
– T3 was sent with TNT,
– T4 was sent with UPS,
– T5 was sent with DHL.
Artworks created for the solo show Sérendipité at the Hangar 107 Art Center in Rouen in July 2021.
Following my researches around the idea of artwork alteration with uncontrolled external factors, I decided to take advantage of the Normandy weather to walk around the art center each time it was raining, protecting myself under an artwork. The colored parallel lines sequence traced with felt pens are defaced by the water drips which make the ink bleed. because the exposition time is the same for each outing, the characteristics of each rain shower can be clearly seen in the result. Big spaced drops, light rain or strong rain shower all leave a different imprint on the ink.
More information: https://galerianueva.com/galerias/setespaidart/
Generative and collective mural painting
DAIS Center, Melun, France
July 2021
6 participants
Project curated by the Centre Georges Pompidou and produced by Studio 13/16.
Hangar 107 Art Center
Rouen, France
July 2021
For the Sérendipité (serendipity) solo show, I presented eight bodies of work: two generative mural paintings, four street experimentations, one interactive mural installation and a generative sculptures project.
Following my researches around the idea of artwork alteration with uncontrolled external factors, I decided to take advantage of the Normandy weather to walk around the art center each time it was raining, protecting myself under an artwork. The colored parallel lines sequence traced with felt pens are defaced by the water drips which make the ink bleed. because the exposition time is the same for each outing, the characteristics of each rain shower can be clearly seen in the result. Big spaced drops, light rain or strong rain shower all leave a different imprint on the ink.
The SM7 sculptures are a reiteration of the Modo n.°7 protocol using volume. Eight different shapes are generated and laid out so the sculpture is stable. Once the balance is found, the molded pieces are assembled and the sculpture is fixed.
Following a generative protocol, 55 abstract compositions were painted on 50 x 50 cm wood panels. The hanging system allows to easily move the pieces around. This way, all along the duration of the show, the public can switch the panel around to make the composition evolves.
Puting the technological breakthrough of NFT in generative art to good use, I uploaded a code online so 16 collectors could generate 16 digital abstract compositions. Each one of them was painted in a cell following the generation order. The final result was discovered at the end of the painting because no simulation of the complete composition was made.
https://www.eltono.com/lab/projects/modo46/
An abstract composition is painted on a wood board and a rope is attached to it. I walk the board, painted face towards the floor, on a looping route that has been defined beforehand. The result is discovered at the end of the loop. In Rouen, I chose to walk eight boards on paths going through the docks and bridges around the Seine river.
After discovering a perfect 7×7 grid on the central freestanding wall, we painted the generative wall painting Modo n.°45 following the Modo n.°7 protocol.
When I arrived at the art center, I went outside to look for rocks. Each rock was painted with three different color coats. The rocks were then brought to the right bank of Rouen and I kicked them to make them roll following predefined paths. Some of them were dropped in the Mont-Saint-Aignan slopes and one, the biggest, rolled on the left bank around the art center.
Random paths (x5) were executed in Niort in 2017 for the show La Ville et le Mouvement curated by Winterlong Gallery.
For a predefined time, I wander in the city with a dice in my pocket. At each street intersection, I roll the dice to decide where to go next. The GPS data of the path is recorded and a sculpture is made out of the result. The sculptures are shown like abstract artworks resulting of my movement in the city.
Thanks to all the Hangar 107 crew, Jean Guillaume, Nicolas, Marc, Kim, Théo, Caro, Marilou and Gabin.
Pictures: Juan Cruz, Jean Guillaume Panis and Eltono.
