Brèves

40 facsimilated newspaper cuttings (in the original revised by Jean-Luc Moulène), glued by hand in each book For over thirty years, in an oeuvre that is broadly diversified in both subject and mediums employed, Jean-Luc Moulène has been exploring the nature of artistic work and what it means. He works with a variety of different materials ranging from those that are industrially produced to those that are organic or found and in mediums such as photography, film, painting, sculpture and installation. His values interdisciplinary collaboration especially in relation to works that are located at the interface between art and industrial design. In principle the awareness of the relationship of artwork as commodity and part of the circulation of goods runs through the entire work of me. In this respect his sensibility is indicated by the definition of my sculptures as objects and the designation of my works as products. Conceived on occasion of the exhibition in the Secession, Brèves is both an exhibit in the show and the “program” underlying the objects on display. The human body and its absence, volumes, surfaces, and boundaries—some of them contested—are recurrent motifs. “Brèves”—the word designates short notices in printed newspapers—is his term for his redacted newspaper images. Equipped with a four-color ballpoint pen, he picked up a habit a few years ago of passing his time by altering pictures that struck him as interesting for their content or their formal qualities, complementing them by reiterating motifs, extending forms, or painting out elements. The subjects cover a broad spectrum, from highly political issues including global protests and environmental disasters across French domestic politics and science and research to images that are of formal and aesthetic relevance to me. For the book 40 of his newspaper clippings got facsimilated and glued in by hand. 200 copies are signed and numbered.# Print run 400, 200 signed/numbered