ART(ist) #7
Benjamin Loyauté
In 2018, Rubis Mécénat invited Benjamin Loyauté to present, for his first solo exhibition in France, the latest chapter of his work-in-progress, Experiencing the ordinary. With this exhibition, presented at the Palais de la Porte Dorée, Paris, and inaugurated for Nuit Blanche, the artist pursues his meditation on the magic of the ordinary and the importance of the intangible heritage in our societies, through a work that intertwines film, installation, sculpture and performance.
In the continuation of the exhibition, Rubis Mécénat supported Benjamin Loyauté’s newest book What Have You Found Out So Far?, published by Dilecta in September 2019, an epic and evolving story to be shared which decrypts the artist ‘s multifaceted work through daily life, magical objects and animism, which allow us to connect with our individual and collective history.
Born in Normandy in 1979, Benjamin Loyauté is known for his research and work centered around reflections on the immaterial and the future of our societies. He explores the value of the ordinary and the notions of common good.
He is particularly interested in the ways in which our faculties of perception are appropriated, and our attention captured. His work examines the magical and political status inherent to the ordinary within our contemporary societies through a variety of mediums ranging from film and sculpture to public interventions and installations.
In 2016, he represented the French Pavilion at the first Utopia by Design: London Design Biennale at Somerset House. Over the past few years, he has been working on an epic, never-ending, ever-changing piece – What have you found out so far? – that combines a number of different mediums. From the very beginning, his research has focused on acts of languages. His work is closely bound to social sciences, phenomenology, fables, and kōans. He has been pursuing work on the WeArtChange series for a number of years now, an initiative that aims to connect with children living in poverty through creativity.
In 2015, he curated Hypervital, an exhibition that was hailed as a decisive moment and key turning point in his practice as an artist.
Since then, he has been honing his own style of artistic intervention. His works have been showcased in a number of venues and institutions: MAMAC-Musée d’Art Moderne et Contemporain (Saint Etienne); MUDAM & Casino Contemporary Art Center (Luxembourg); MoMA(New York); Palazzo Clerici & Del Stelline (Milan); Power Station of Art (Shanghai); the Baalbek archaeological site (Lebanon); Parco Archeologico Selinunte (Sicily); Palais de la Porte Dorée – Musée de l’Immigration (commissioned by Rubis Mécénat for the Nuit Blanche Paris 2018); Ithra-King Abdulaziz Center for World Culture (Saudi Arabia); Kanal-Centre Pompidou, Fondation Boghossian (Brussels), and beyond.