Étienne Chambaud explores the relationships between matter, signs, and structures through works that question the limits of perception and knowledge. His practice, rooted in a conceptual approach, moves between sculpture, installation, film, and writing, often appropriating and repurposing objects or systems from natural history, philosophy, and science. His works function as thresholds of transformation, where the boundaries between form and dissolution, meaning and loss, become blurred and reconfigured. As Tristan Garcia notes, “each of his pieces is like the cross-section of a living contradiction.”
Étienne Chambaud
Mulhouse, France, 1980. Lives and works in Paris.
Flat Source Negative #6 | 2014 | Photograph produced from acrylic scratched negative | Print 30 x 45 cm | Frame 90 x 123 x 6 cm
The Fractal Zoo | Additive Expression | 2013 | Bronce, steel, seeds, food colouring, birds’ droppings | variable dimensions
«An on-going investigation on the limits between things, their exhibitions and their perceptions.»
Étienne Chambaud studied at ECAL in Lausanne, Villa Arson in Nice, and the École nationale des Beaux-Arts (ENBA) in Lyon. He holds a PhD from the SACRe program at PSL University, École Normale Supérieure (ENS) and École Nationale Supérieure des Beaux-Arts (ENSBA) in Paris.
His solo exhibitions include Lâme, LaM – Lille Métropole Musée d'art moderne, d'art contemporain et d'art brut, Villeneuve-d'Ascq (2022); Inexistence, Esther Schipper, Berlin (2021); Negative Knots, La Kunsthalle, Mulhouse (2018); Undercuts, Forde, Geneva (2012); The Encored Separation, Art Unlimited, Basel (2011);Counter History of Separation, CIAP, Vassivière (2010); The Sirens’ Stage, David Roberts Art Foundation, London (2010); among others.
Recent group shows include Domain du Muy x Esther Schipper, Le Muy (2024); Icons, Punta della Dogana, Pinault Collection, Venise; MACBA, The collection: Time is an Illusion, Collegium, Arévalo (2023); High Spirits, Monopol, Berlin (2023); Stories of Stone, Villa Medici, Rome (2023); Once Upon a Time, FRAC Champagne-Ardenne (2022); among others.
Related Exhibitions ↓
