Oursin Fossile
Placed on the ground, a mound of earth, reflective brass plates, and plaster and wooden elements draw our gaze and body downwards allowing Sophie Bueno-Boutellier to provoke a sense of introspective contemplation. Each of the materials in this piece seems to be an artefact from an unknown ritual. This assemblage is constructed according to a precise method: the artist collects and selects objects and materials which she then arranges, rearranges, and disrupts until the physical manifestation of an inner questioning emerges. In this way, she brings to the viewer's attention the multiplicity of meanings that these installations can take on. Oursin fossile mixes subjectivity and universal truth, through which the artist appropriates a contemporary economy of postmodern art. The work questions today’s urgent quest for progress and the use of raw or transformed materials creates an echo between mysticism and modernity. Sophie Bueno-Boutellier’s creative power lies in the choice of the arrangement of elements so that every viewer can freely appropriate its message.
Text written by Manon Prévost-Van Dooren as part of the partnership between the École du Louvre and Lafayette Anticipations – Fonds de dotation Famille Moulin.
Exhibitions
Musée du château des ducs de Wurtemberg, Montbéliard (France)
from 01 Jun to 14 Oct 2012
La Galerie des Galeries, Paris (France)
from 20 Oct 2009 to 09 Jan 2010