LA PART DES CHOSES (GET THE BALANCE RIGHT) / EPISODE #2
CHRISTOPH MEIER
If we wanted to, we could use a prism of historical references (modernism, minimalism, abstraction) to shed some light upon Christoph Meier's practice, but perhaps it is equally as effective to do without this. It could even be said, that he represents a generation of artists who have no hang-ups about using the tools (theoretical and applied) of the past, yet still don’t neglect to break things down (decompartmentalize) in order to release the spectator from the aesthetic relationship(s) into which the twentieth century has possibly trapped them.Christoph Meier’s works have a multitude of visual qualities which are often bound to very specific aspects of an incongruous assembly; a ping pong table sitting next to a projector and a stool (in example 1). Here we find several projections of slides and 8mm films, with the result being both insignificant and fascinating. This is what is at play in this installation: by constructing something ambivalent and difficult to grasp, it is as if Meier wishes to create a relative depression regarding our relationship(s) to the art object. There is no doubt about it, what strongly attracts us to his work is both a will to “saw the legs” from under his own methodology, without ever seeing the end, and a capacity to suspend our gaze upon a possible collapse which never comes.The small sculpture Nicolas is the result of a short collaboration with Aurélien Porte. It’s both symptomatic of the system described above and its antidote. The symptom is the incredulity we can feel upon encountering this foam cube stained with paint, and Christoph Meier’s detachment from every system (even his own) being precisely the antidote. In fact, Nicolas was partly created for the simple reason that it could be easily transported. On this evidence alone, that is reason enough.
Martial Déflacieux
