Raphaël Zarka
Raphael Zarka collects sculptural forms. His ongoing series, Les Formes du Repos (Resting forms), begun in 2001, consists of photographs of remnants of human enterprise littering the landscape: a stretch of unfinished monorail, a concrete breakwater, a lone pylon. Zarka captures the sculptural possibilities of these forms as images, such that the abandoned, the disused, and the forgotten become sites of potential, with a lexicon of formal associations that runs from Plato to modernism to postminimalist sculpture. Moving beyond the strategies associated with archives and appropriation, which have come to characterize contemporary art production in recent years, Zarka’s project reinvests cultural remnants of the past with both functional and aesthetic promise.
Zarka sees himself as an essayist as well as an artist and collector. Robert Smithson is one of his heroes, less for the formal manifestations of his work than for his writing and his mining of an eclectic range of kinds of cultural production. The critic Hal Foster observed, in his text on “the archival impulse,” that the retrieval of preexisting visual sources, be they photographic, filmic, or text-based, is carried out by artists “in a gesture of alternative knowledge.” This observation is echoed to a certain extent in a statement by Zarka: “I never try to present reality as it is. On the contrary, I’m stressing the fact that we can only ever see the world from our own particular cultural viewpoint.”
In his visual ecology of reinvestment and reuse, Zarka not only creates a space of physical and temporal layering with assured elegance, but he propels us into dimensions of discovery and, for those of us used to considering our art from a position of polite critical scrutiny, some vicarious thrill-seeking. Old terrain, seemingly left for dead, suddenly becomes new again.
Born in Montpellier (France) in 1977, lives and works in Paris.
l Awards & grants l
2008
Paul Ricard S.A. Award (work donated to the National Museum of Modern Art/ Centre Georges Pompidou,
Paris)
2007
Bourse individuelle d’aide à la création, Drac Ile-de-France
2006
Bourse de la direction des affaires culturelles de la ville de Paris
2004
Bourse individuelle d’aide à la création, Drac Languedoc-Roussillon
2003
Prix de l’installation de l’Ensba pour la pièce Paysage d’où vient le vent
l Education l
2002
DNSEP, Ecole Nationale des Beaux Arts, Paris
1999
Bachelor of fine art, Winchester School of Art, (UK)
l Solo shows l
2010
FRAC Alsace, Selestat, France
Pergola, Palais de Tokyo, Paris
Rhombus Sectus, Palazzo delle Stelline - Galerie du Centre Culturel Français, Milan, Italie
2009
Double paysage, tempête électrique (2), Galerie Marcel Duchamp, Châteauroux, France
Double paysage, tempête électrique, Galerie Edouard Manet, Gennevilliers, France
Geometry Improved , (cur. Suzanne Cotter) Museum of Modern Art, Oxford
Documentary Sculptures, Motive gallery, Amsterdam
L'abbé Nollet, Les Eglises, contemporary art center, Chelles, France
2008
Ratiocination, galerie Michel Rein, Paris
Padova, La Vitrine, Galerie de l’Ecole des Beaux-Arts de Cergy, Paris
2007
Foundation, Galerie 1m3, Lausanne, Switzerland
En Milieu Continu, Galerie de l’école des beaux-arts de Nantes, France
Sébastien Vonier / Raphaël Zarka, Musée des Beaux Arts de La Roche-Sur-Yon, France
Un Voyage d’hiver (avec G. Constantin), Tripode / Espace Diderot, Rezé, France
2006
Librairie Florence Loewy, Paris
Une Histoire Vraie , Galerie des Grands Bains Douches, Marseille, France
2005
Duchêne / Zarka, Librairie Histoire de l’oeil, Marseille, France
Les Formes du Repos, La Planck, Galerie Air de Paris, Paris
2003
Pentacycle, Les Instants Chavirés, Montreuil, France
Galerie Vasistas, Montpellier, France
2002
Terrains Vagues (avec V. Lamouroux), Paris Project Room, Paris
l Group shows l
2010
Paisatge. Paisatge?, àngels barcelona gallery, Barcelona
Diamonds on the soles of her shoes, (cur. Niru Ratnam) Bischoff/Weiss gallery, London
nightwatch, the Art Foundation, Athenes
Les élixirs de Panacée (cur. Ami Barak), Bénédictine de Fécamp, France
2009
Le jardin aux sentiers qui bifurquent, (cur. Lorenzo Beneddetti), Kunsthalle Mulhouse, France
Plus réel que l’herbe#1 (les cratères du futur) (cur. Ernesto Sartori), Zoo galerie, Nantes, France
Machinations, Vidéochroniques, Marseille, France
La planète des signes / Planet of Signs (Erudition concrète 1), (cur. Guillaume Désanges) Le Plateau FRAC
Ile de France
Le travail de Rivière, (cur. Claire le Restif) CREDAC, Ivry-sur-Seine, France
Détruire, disent-ils, (cur. Patrice Joly) Galeries du cloître, Ecole des Beaux Arts de Rennes, Rennes, France
Green Light, Laura Bartlett gallery, London
Altri discorsi, Careof, Milan, Italy
De rêve et de raison,(cur. Françoise Lonardoni) Bibliothèque Municipale de Lyon, France
Les Archipels réinventés/ les 10 ans du Prix d'entreprise Ricard, Centre Pompidou, Paris
2008
Modern©ité III, (cur. Sophie Legrandjacques) Grand Café, Centre d’Art Contemporain, Saint Nazaire,
France
Les Feuilles, (cur. Y. Gourmel & E. Royer) Super, Paris ; Palais de Tokyo, Paris
Paradoxe du trésor, Guillaume Constantin & Raphaël Zarka, Interface, Dijon, France
.../..., Guillaume Constantin & Raphaël Zarka, Atelier Cardenas Bellanger, Paris
Foyer: language and space at the border, (cur. Simon Rees) Contemporary Art Centre, Vilnius, Lithuania
La consistance du visible, 10ème prix de la Fondation Ricard, (cur. Nicolas Bourriaud) Fondation
d'entreprise Ricard, Paris
(), Neutre Intense, (cur. Christophe Gallois) Centre d’art Mira Phalaina / Maison Pop, Montreuil, France;
Carl Freedman gallery, London
Joseph Hannibal now, Blancpain Art Contemporain, Geneva, Switzerland
L'anomalie d'Ararat, IrmaVepLab, Chatillon sur Marne, France
Grand chaos et tiroirs, Ateliers des Arques, Les Arques; Printemps de Septembre, Toulouse, France
La spécificité des sols, 9ème biennale d'Art Grandeur Nature, Les Instants Chavirés, Montreuil, France
La Marge d’erreur, Synagogue de Delme, Delme, France
Ultramoderne, Centre d’art Passerelle, Brest, France
Amorces, Galerie Edouard Manet, Gennevilliers, France
P2P, Casino Luxembourg, Luxembourg
Auteurs Autoritaires, Frac Champagne Ardenne, Reims, France
Katamari, 220 jours / Galerie GB Agency, Paris
2007
Biennale de Lyon, Musée d’art Contemporain, Lyon, France
Airs de Paris, MNAM Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris
XS, Fondation d’Entreprise Ricard, Paris
Speed Dating 2, Zoo Galerie, Nantes, France
Le Jardin de Cyrus, Galerie Edouard Manet, Gennevilliers, France
Utopomorfias, Galeria Antonio Henriques, Viseu, Portugual
Ultramoderne / Materia, Espace Paul Wurth, Luxembourg
Enlarge your Practice, Friche de la Belle de Mai, Marseille, France
Le Syndrome Broadway, Centre d’art du Parc St Léger, Pougues-les-Eaux, France
Speed Dating, Espace Mica, Rennes, France
L’ile de Morel, Centre Photographique d’Ile-de-France, Pontault-Combault, France
Uni Super Blockhaus Total Parpaing, Oeen group, Copenhagen , Denmark
Ideal.Loop, Esapcae Croisé, Roubaix; Espai Ubu, Barcelona, Spain
Contrechamp n°5, Miscellanées Cinéma , Le Cinématographe, Nantes, France
Vidéoisme#6, Mains d’oeuvres, Paris
Voyage Blanc, Frac Franche-Comté, Besançon, France
Architectures/Exploring Concrete, Saison Vidéo 2007, MAV, Lille, France
2006
Mémorabilia, l’Atelier, Galerie Jean Brolly, Paris
Rencontres vidéos #3, MACVAL, Musée d’art contemporain, Vitry, France
Horizons Synthétiques, Mains d’oeuvres, Saint-Ouen, France
Les Nuits Blanches, Galerie Extérieure, Paris
L’usage du monde, Museum of Modern Art Rijeka, Croatia
AAKEY, (cur. François Piron) CCC,Centre d’art contemporain, Tours, France
Etranges Fictions, Schloss Agathenburg, Germany
The Library, With bizarre rooms in whimsical shapes, Villa Warsaw, Warsaw, Poland
Reprise et Reprise, Galerie Extérieure, Paris
Le Spectre des Armatures, Glassbox, Paris
Video-Salon, Galerija 10m2, Sarajevo, Bosnia-Herzegovina
Le Bord du Monde, Les Instants Chavirés, Montreuil, France
Récurrences Dérobées, Betonsalon, Paris
Exposition#3, Galerie Schirman & de Beaucé, Paris
2005
Le Bord du Monde, Frac Languedoc-Roussillon, Montpellier, France
Itanomthub, Mains d’oeuvres, Saint-Ouen, France
2004
Lieux Communs, Les Instants Chavirés, Montreuil, France
Cachez ce quotidien que je ne saurais voir!, Frac Languedoc-Roussillon, Montpellier, France
2003
Festival accès(s) 03, Pau, France
Mursollaici, Centre Culturel Suisse, Paris
l Texts l
2009
Chronologie lacunaire du skateboard 1779-2009, éditions B42, Paris
2007
