Les Extatiques 2020

For the third time, Les Extatiques are at La Seine Musicale, where the Département des Hauts-de-Seine is exhibiting works by 5 artists on the theme of "nothing to see" on the roof-garden and forecourt of the department's cultural landmark.

Free exhibition in the public space (forecourt and north passageway) and in the Jardin Bellini.

The Jardin Bellini is open daily from 11 a.m. to dusk (July 22 to 31: 11 a.m.-10 p.m. / August 1 to 31: 11 a.m.-9 p.m. / September 1 to October 2: 11 a.m.-8 p.m.).

Artists in the program

1. Fabrice HYBER – Men Women
2. Julie C. FORTIER - The day the flowers froze
3. Elsa SAHAL – Meander
4. Matteo NASINI – Screwed Harmonies
5. Félice VARINI – Arc of yellow, red and blue ellipses

Les Extatiques 2020 - map of the artworks on the La Seine Musicale side

1. FABRICE HYBER – Men Women, 2020

Fabrice HYBER

Fabrice Hyber is a protean artist who conceives his work as a gigantic rhizome that develops on a principle of echoes. Invariably starting from the practice of drawing and painting, he invests all modes of expression and constantly diffuses his work from one medium to another. For him, it's not the materiality of the work that matters, only its ability to trigger behavior.

The work for La Seine Musicale

At La Seine Musicale, the artist installs Homme Femme, a pair of small green figures whose bodily orifices pour streams of water. This sculpture-fountain is the result of work begun over twenty years ago in response to a public commission from the commune of Bessines (Deux Sèvres). Since then, L'homme de Bessines has travelled the world. This incredible expansion continues today with this couple, a strange duo from which ooze the flows and moods of bodies. With his sculptures installed both at La Seine Musicale and in the Bassin Takis at Paris La Défense, the artist bridges the gap between the two territories.

HOMMEFEMME, 2020
Mixed media
Prototype
Courtesy Fabrice Hyber

See Fabrice Hyber's work at Paris La Défense

2. JULIE C. FORTIER - The day the flowers froze, 2020

Julie C. FORTIER

Since her beginnings in video and performance art, Julie C. Fortier has been recording the passage of time through her works. Since 2013, she has added to her repertoire of work, a research with odors and aromas that take the form of perfumes, installations and drawings or culinary and olfactory performances. This paradoxical aspect creates a work with an invisible yet present, intimately penetrating dimension.

The work for La Seine Musicale

"Le jour où les fleurs ont gelé" is a bouquet of seven metal fiddleheads that unfurl to reveal precious perfumed capsules in glass and porous porcelain. Some of the molecules used in fragrances are in the form of crystals. This involves composing simple accords of three or four molecules and crystallizing them on the surface of the glass. In contrast to the usual transience of perfume, capsules attempt to tame this volatility and make it last as long as possible.

The day the flowers froze, 2020
Olfactory installation, 7 glass capsules and porous porcelain, painted steel structure
Metal structure design in collaboration with Patrick de Bruyn
One-off piece
Courtesy Galerie Luis Adelantado, Valencia

3. ELSA SAHAL – Meander, 2020

Elsa SAHAL

After graduating from the Beaux-Arts de Paris in 2000, Elsa Sahal took part in a solo show at the Fondation d'entreprise Ricard in 2008 and won the MAIF prize for sculpture. She has participated in numerous works exhibited from Paris to Washington.

The work for La Seine Musicale

"Méandre" by Elsa Sahal is an aquatic work. It seems to have emerged from an invisible world, brought to us by the waters of the Seine that surround it. At once a sea monster and a suit of armor, she is surrounded by aquatic flowers and coral, modeled in clay and enameled for walkers to sit on. "Méandre" was conceived as a landscape. It follows the curves of Shigeru Ban's garden, inviting us to take refuge and, perhaps, meditate on our relationship with living things.

MEANDER, 2020
Aluminum and glazed ceramic
One-of-a-kind piece
Courtesy Galerie Papillon, Paris, France

4. MATTEO NASINI – Screwed Harmonies, 2020

Matteo NASINI

Matteo Nasini's artistic research begins with the study of sounds and evolves towards physical forms, through the study and observation of the surface of plastic materials and sounds. This leads to a practice that translates into sound installations, audiovisual or sculptural works. His creations have beeń exhibited in the following venues around the world.

The work for La Seine Musicale

On the forecourt of La Seine Musicale, almost three meters of sound sculpture choose the wind as their sole conductor. The wind turns the propeller at the top of the structure, generating the movement of the spheres. They rise and fall in a continuous movement that echoes Leonardo da Vinci's infinite screw. Along the way, the spheres strike tuned pipes, giving rise to slow, deep tones reminiscent of bells. Matteo Nasini's artistic and musical research focuses on identifying alternatives to classical composition.

SCREWED HARMONIES, 2020
Mixed media
One-off piece
Courtesy Clima Gallery

5. FELICE VARINI – Arc of yellow, red and blue ellipses, 2020

Felice VARINI

Since the 1980s, Felice Varini has been developing a body of work that unfolds in the architectural space of urban landscapes. His formal vocabulary is simple and geometric: squares, triangles, ellipses, circles, rectangles or straight lines crossing the landscape or architecture. With each new intervention, he explores a different site, drawing on its architecture, materials, history and function.

The work for La Seine Musicale

Felice Varini uses three dominant colors: blue, red and yellow. These different strokes turn around each other, focusing on a specific point of La Seine Musicale, the "point of view". The point of view functions as a reading point, a possible starting point for approaching the painting and the space. The painted form is coherent when the viewer is at this point. When the viewer leaves the point of view, the work encounters space, which generates an infinite number of points of view on the form.

ARCS OF YELLOW, RED AND BLUE ELLIPSES, 2020
Aluminum, adhesive, paint
One-off piece
Courtesy Felice Varini

5. JEONG HWA CHOI - Breathing Flower, 2019

Jeong Hwa CHOI

A leading figure in Korean art, this pop artist with a kitsch aesthetic creates joyful, ultra-colorful works. The artist draws on the proliferation of objects from consumer society to create forms born of the accumulation of everyday objects and waste, which he transforms into works of art. He also creates gigantic inflatable works in recycled plastic, just as delirious: an immense fruit tree or flowers that breathe.

The immense inflatable lotus flowers are among the artist's most emblematic works. A symbol of purity, the lotus is a sacred flower in Buddhist iconography. Artist Choi Jeong Hwa's inflatable representation of the lotus is open to several interpretations. With this larger-than-life sculpture in synthetic material and unreal colors, the artist desanctifies the religious icon to turn it into an enchanting ornamental object.

The work for La Seine Musicale

Placed on the roof and visible from afar, the petals of this immense 7-meter-diameter corolla move slowly to the rhythm of pulses of air, creating the strange sensation of breathing. The artist breathes life into them, as if to ward off their ephemeral beauty. An allusion to the estrangement of the spiritual in Korea, a country undergoing rapid urbanization in the midst of an economic boom. The petals of this immense 7-meter-diameter corolla move slowly to the rhythm of pulses of air, creating the strange sensation of breathing. The artist breathes life into it, as if to ward off its ephemeral beauty.

This work was presented in 2019 at the 2nd edition of Les Extatiques at Paris La Défense.

BREATHING FLOWER, 2019
Fabric, wind tunnel, LED lighting, steel,
wood structure
Courtesy Jeong Hwa Choi/P21, Seoul