BERNAR VENET
Bernar Venet is a versatile Conceptual artist who has made a name for himself in various art forms such as painting, drawing, sculpture, installation, stage design, poetry and musical composition. In the 1960s, he gained recognition for his amorphous installations created by piling up gravel, coal, or asphalt, and for his “industrial paintings” made of cardboard reliefs or tar. Venet aligned with Minimalist sculptors such as Donald Judd, Dan Flavin, and Carl Andre and began creating wall-mounted and freestanding metal sculptures that resembled scribbles, lines, and arcs. His well-known torch-cut steel plates and beams are a battle between him and the metal, as he tests its strength and resistance.
Bernar Venet’s artistic practice challenges control and embraces chance encounters through analog generative performances and environments. His sculptures are one version of many possible compositions, demonstrating their non-proportional and non-pre-established nature. Venet’s performances involve his body as a participant, culminating in the collapse of his sculptures in front of an audience, generating one version of completion. This collapse invites new possibilities for form and arrangement through submission to gravity. Fréchuret observes in his essay that these moments hold a positive force, where the shapeless can once again assume form, giving rise to novel and intriguing possibilities.
DIFFEOMORPHISM
2023
3:00
generative artwork video footage
Bernar Venet has recently ventured into the digital world by utilizing blockchain as a medium. Dwelling in the algorithmic world marks a conceptual explosion of his artistic practice. Venet’s first digitally native painting series, “Diffeomorphism,” draws its name from experimental physics and is conveyed through physical paintings and a generative art collection. Through this exploration of a new medium, Venet continues to push the boundaries of his artistic practice and create new avenues for expression.
