Fabrice Gygi
O_O, 2011. Installation. Leather and Iron. Variable dimensions
Fabrice Gygi finds inspiration for his works on the elements that surround him, structures that reflect order and power and the surveillance and intrinsic authoritarianism of social systems.
Throughout his career, he has developed projects and works in different formats -such as performance, engraving, and installations- involving objects or sculptures. For the last ten years, Gygi focused his production on three-dimensional works of medium and large format, with clear references to the industrial and structures from urban buildings or public spaces.
Several of his works show a clear inspiration on the military, jail, court, guns, order, democracy, totalitarianism, dictatorship, spots, condemnation and punishment. His pieces, all sharing a common denominator, create insecurity, and maintain the idea of a line between what is and is not art. There’s a sense of ready-made in some of his works, yet the pure minimalism is the most characteristic aspect in his art, as well as the reference to cold materials that are used to contain society within its “normalcy”.
Gygi has developed a large variety of objects, such as blockage, barricade or cages, all made from different materials that represent or form frontiers, obstructing the way. He also constructed vigilance towers or cross blocks with the same meaning, all together, creating his own vocabulary.
For Proa´s exhibition, the artist wanted to make a different kind of piece, a softer one than the ones his used to, and wanted to use materials from Argentina, generating a link to the local context. Like he had done for his series LTXYI, he chose leather and iron.
This new works refer to the colts of gymnastics, an obstacle surpassed only by dumping over it. As always, he translated this to his method and combined it with elements that suggest the shape of the piece. In this case, the artist, combined the materials and shapes of a ball used for the game of duck, Argentina’s national sport.
This work confirms his minimal and pure inspirations and the artist’s interest in materials, shapes and social paradoxes, for this game was banned in earlier times for its violent character and lack of rules. The sculpture is a reference to this violent and chaotic sport, but through an art piece and from a formal artistic language that refers to order, purity and control.
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Fabrice Gygi(1965, Geneva, Switzerland). Lives and works in Geneva. Recognized internationally for his installations, sculptures and minimalist focused objects with an aesthetic focused on political and social themes. Works with Galleries such as Chantal Crousel in Paris, Guy Bärtschy in Geneva and Francesca Pia in Berna. Held exhibitions in the Orange County Museum de California, Mamco of Ginebra, Magasin 3 of Stocolm, Museum of Contemporary Art of Tucson and the Swiss Institute of New York. Participated in important International artistic events as a representative for Switzerland, such as the Venice Biennale (2009) and São Paulo (2002). Recived several award, that incluye the 6th Cairo Biennal and the Swiss Art Awards between 1996 and 1998.
Links
http://editioncopenhagen.com/default.asp?Action=Details&Item=380
http://www.crousel.com/artists/gygy_fabrice/index.html
http://www.magasin3.com/v1/exhibitions/gygi.html
http://www.bartschi.ch/ggb.php?opt=artist&id=84
http://www.frieze.com/issue/review/fabrice_gygi/