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58. | Dark Dark Dark
 
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  • 2022, Acrylic on ceramic, H 43,5 cm.
    Exhibition view from The Point of No Return, Wilde Gallery, 2022, Basel.
    Courtesy of the artist.

  • 2022, Acrylic on ceramic, H 29 cm.
    Exhibition view from The Point of No Return, Wilde Gallery, 2022, Basel.
    Courtesy of the artist.

  • 2022, Acrylic on ceramic, H 36 cm.
    Exhibition view from The Point of No Return, Wilde Gallery, 2022, Basel.
    Courtesy of the artist.

  • 2022, Acrylic on ceramic, H 36 cm.
    Exhibition view from The Point of No Return, Wilde Gallery, 2022, Basel.
    Courtesy of the artist.

  • 2022, Acrylic on ceramic, H 36 cm.
    Exhibition view from The Point of No Return, Wilde Gallery, 2022, Basel.
    Courtesy of the artist.

  • 2022, Acrylic on ceramic, H 33 cm.
    Exhibition view from The Point of No Return, Wilde Gallery, 2022, Basel.
    Courtesy of the artist.

  • 2022, Acrylic on ceramic, H 33 cm.
    Exhibition view from The Point of No Return, Wilde Gallery, 2022, Basel.
    Courtesy of the artist.

  • 2022, Acrylic on ceramic, H 29 cm.
    Exhibition view from The Point of No Return, Wilde Gallery, 2022, Basel.
    Courtesy of the artist.

  • 2022, Acrylic on ceramic, H 29 cm.
    Exhibition view from The Point of No Return, Wilde Gallery, 2022, Basel.
    Courtesy of the artist.

  • 2022, Acrylic on ceramic, H 29 cm.
    Exhibition view from The Point of No Return, Wilde Gallery, 2022, Basel.
    Courtesy of the artist.

  • 2022, Acrylic on ceramic, 5,4 × 35,5 cm.
    Exhibition view from The Point of No Return, Wilde Gallery, 2022, Basel.
    Courtesy of the artist.

  • 2022, Acrylic on ceramic, 5,4 × 35,5 cm.
    Exhibition view from The Point of No Return, Wilde Gallery, 2022, Basel.
    Courtesy of the artist.

  • 2022, Acrylic on ceramic, 5,4 × 35,5 cm.
    Exhibition view from The Point of No Return, Wilde Gallery, 2022, Basel.
    Courtesy of the artist.

  • 2022, Acrylic on ceramic, 5,4 × 35,5 cm.
    Exhibition view from The Point of No Return, Wilde Gallery, 2022, Basel.
    Courtesy of the artist.

  • 2022, Acrylic on ceramic, 4,2 × 27 cm.
    Exhibition view from The Point of No Return, Wilde Gallery, 2022, Basel.
    Courtesy of the artist.

  • 2022, Acrylic on ceramic, 4,5 × 31 cm.
    Exhibition view from The Point of No Return, Wilde Gallery, 2022, Basel.
    Courtesy of the artist.

  • 2022, Acrylic on ceramic, 4,5 × 31 cm.
    Exhibition view from The Point of No Return, Wilde Gallery, 2022, Basel.
    Courtesy of the artist.

  • 2022, Acrylic on ceramic, 4,2 × 27 cm.
    Exhibition view from The Point of No Return, Wilde Gallery, 2022, Basel.
    Courtesy of the artist.

  • 2022, Acrylic on ceramic, 4,2 × 27 cm.
    Exhibition view from The Point of No Return, Wilde Gallery, 2022, Basel.
    Courtesy of the artist.

  • 2022, Acrylic on ceramic, 4,2 × 27 cm.
    Exhibition view from The Point of No Return, Wilde Gallery, 2022, Basel
    Courtesy of the artist.

''The jar, which represents one of the first supports for transporting and storing different liquids such as water, and the plate,

which represents our relationship to food and therefore to the energy that allowed us to continue living. Sculpture then brings together the concept of the medium and the archive at the same time.''


Studio Fatmi, October 2022
 




Collection of Mirabaud Contemporary Art Collection, Geneva

 

Dark Dark Dark est une série de céramiques noir composé de jarres et d’assiettes de plusieurs tailles sur lesquelles l’artiste à peint en blanc des formes géométriques. Ces dessins sont inspirés des courbes de la bourse traitant les prix du blé, du riz, du cacao ou des statistiques représentant la pénurie d’eau. Depuis 2014 mounir fatmi a commencé à s’intéresser à ce langage graphique universel abstrait et complexe en le déconstruisant et le présentant dans un contexte artistique hors des analyses des journaux spécialisés et les gourous de la finance.

Ces sculptures en céramiques fonctionnent comme des artefacts/archives, chargés d’information. Elles sont traversées horizontalement par des lignes des inflexions courbes et de graphiques résultants d’algorithmes mathématiques et des sciences économiques, afin de produire une représentation visuelle de nos données chiffrées. En d’autres termes, l’artiste relie cette masse de data incompréhensible à la réalité de notre vie quotidienne. La jarre qui représente un des premiers supports pour transporter et stoker diffèrent liquides comme l’eau et l’assiette qui représente notre relation à la nourriture et donc à l’énergie qui nous permis de continuer à vivre. La sculpture regroupe alors en même temps le concept le médium et l’archive.

Mais chez mounir fatmi, cette question d’objet/Archive n’est pas nouvelle, puisqu’il a déclaré plusieurs fois depuis le début de sa carrière que son œuvre se situe justement entre l’archive et l’archéologie. L’artiste examine alors l’idée que l’archive se construit sur une base d’obsolescence, ce qui rend difficile et presque impossible sa préservation. Il rappelle également la rapidité avec laquelle les technologies évoluent et le peu de temps qu’elles nous laissent pour pouvoir archiver et documenter ce processus.

Cela dit, la proposition artistique ici ne consiste pas seulement à préserver les données, mais aussi à récupérer les histoires oubliées derrière elles, une tâche qui, selon l’artiste, ne peut pas être effectuée que par les archivistes et les historiens. Nous sommes tous concernés par cette question vu la quantité phénoménale de données que nous produisons.

Il devient donc urgent de préserver nos informations pour les générations futures alors que nos moyens d’archivage actuel ne sont même pas au niveau des anciennes tablettes sumériennes. De ce fait, l’artiste se pose plusieurs questions : qu’est-ce qu’il est vraiment nécessaire de préserver ? Que nous devrions faire de ces archives ? Que se passera-t-il lorsque toutes ces données deviendront obsolètes ? Comment préserver ces informations alors que notre technologie d’archivage est obsolète ?

C’est à partir de ces questions que l’artiste a décidé d’utiliser les deux formes de céramique - la jarre et l’assiette - qui représentent pour lui deux objets liés directement aux prix changeants des valeurs de la bourse. Peindre ces informations sur des céramiques en argile, nous ramène directement aux tablettes sumériennes grâce auxquelles nous avons découvert le langage.

Ainsi ces tablettes qui sont considérées jusqu’à maintenant comme les premières formes d’archivage, les sculptures Dark Dark Dark aspirent à résister à l’épreuve du temps et assumer la tâche presque impossible de préserver et de transmettre nos archives aux générations futures. 

 
Studio Fatmi, Octobre 2022

 

 

 

Dark Dark Dark is a series of black ceramics composed of jars and plates of several sizes on which the artist painted geometric shapes in white. These drawings are inspired by the volatile curves of the stock market that deal with the prices of wheat, rice, cocoa, or statistics representing the shortage of water. Since 2014, mounir fatmi has taken an interest in this abstract and complex universal graphic language by deconstructing it and presenting it in an artistic context outside the analsyes of specialized journals and financial gurus.

These ceramic sculptures function as artefacts or archives, loaded with information. They are crossed horizontally by lines of curved inflections and graphs resulting from mathematical algorithms and economic sciences to produce a visual representation of our numerical data. In other words, the artist links this mass of incomprehensible data to the reality of our daily lives. The jar, which represents one of the first supports for transporting and storing different liquids such as water, and the plate, which represents our relationship to food and therefore to the energy that allows us to continue living. Sculpture then brings together the concept of the medium and the archive at the same time.

But for mounir fatmi, this question of objects/archive is not new since he has said several times throughout his career that his work is situated precisely between the archive and archeology. The artist examines the idea that the archive is built on a basis of obsolescence, which makes it difficult and almost impossible to preserve it. It also reminds us of the speed with which technologies evolve and the little time they leave us to be able to archive and document this process.

That said, the artistic proposition here is not only to preserve the data, but also to recover the forgotten stories behind them, a task which, according to the artist, cannot be carried out only by archivists and historians. We are all concerned by this question given the phenomenal amount of data we produce.

It is therefore becoming urgent to preserve our information for future generations while our current archiving means are not even at the level of the ancient Sumerian tablets. As a result, the artist asks himself several questions: what is necessary to preserve? What should we do with these archives? What will happen when all this data becomes obsolete? How to preserve this information when our archiving technology is obsolete?

It is from these questions that the artist decided to use the two forms of ceramics - the jar and the plate - which represent for him two objects directly linked to the changing prices of stock market values. Painting this information on clay ceramics takes us directly back to the Sumerian tablets through which we discovered language. Like those tablets that are considered the earliest forms of archival records to this day, the Dark Dark Dark sculptures aspire to stand the test of time and take on the near-impossible task of preserving and passing on our records to future generations.  

 

 

 

 

Studio Fatmi, October 2022