Xavier Veilhan
15 October 2000 - 7 January 2001
Curators : Yves Aupetitallot & Lionel Bovier

MAGASIN - Centre National d'Art Contemporain is producing and presenting the first retrospective exhibition by Xavier Veilhan.
Xavier Veilhan belongs to the generation of artists that emerged at the begining of the 1990s.
His work draws on the radical experiments of the 1960s and '70s while developing a pragmatic attitude to artistic systems and modes of production. The techniques he uses are deliberately and overtly "traditional". The open series of paintings conceived as dictonary sketches (1988-1993), the outlines of monuments (1993-1996) and the life-size sculpture of policemen or Republican Guards (1993-1996) all belong to established or even abandoned artistic categories. "I am interested", says Veilhan, "in the idea of my work being diluted in forms that the public is already familiar with, being able to infiltrate kinetic art or minimal art and the logic of monuments with the same ease."
His practice of photography and digitally manipulated imagery followed logically from this concern. The Hommes rouges series (cabinet des Estampes, Geneva, 1996) shows hooded men in red jumping from a helicopter into the water at the la Villette park in northern Paris. As a result of a digital process that makes it possible to reduce values to an average that partially erases the outlines and details of the original photograph, their image floats ambiguously between photography, computer screen and painting.
Veilhan thus uses traditional codes of representation which he turns on the viewers, taking into account their knowledge of these codes and their reception of and reaction to the work in active situations that question our relation to reality.

The exhibition at Magasin

The exhibition brings together some of Veilhan's most ambitious and significant works from between 1988 and 2000.
In all, about 20 works are shown at Magasin, with presentations in all the rooms (2,000 square metres). A new momumental piece 6 meters high, Le Menuet, is created for the show.
Rather than chronogically, the pieces are arranged in accordance with their themes (machines, images, question of representation, etc.) and environmental qualities (La Grotte and La Forêt).
The various spaces are opened up and visitors move freely from one area to another.

Biography
Xavier Veilhan was born in 1963 in Lyons. He lives and works in Paris.

Exhibition checklist
Le Menuet, 2000
580 x 580 cm
Pierre Huber Collection, Geneva

Les Vélos /The Bicycles, 2000
3 bicycles in metal : one with a single gear with brake front and back ; one with a single gear without brake ; one with a single gear with no brake either direction, all blue and black
100 x 175 x 40 cm
Courtesy Galerie Jennifer Flay, Paris

La Plage 2000 / The Beach 2000, 2000
Large picture composed of numerous small images
Ø 910 cm
Courtesy Galerie Jennifer Flay, Paris

Sans titre (L'Arbre) / Untitled (The Tree) 1991/ 2000
Wall painting
60 x 40 cm
Courtesy Galerie Jennifer Flay, Paris

Gaël et Mickaël, 1999-2000
Acrylic and oil painting on canvas
240 x 230 cm
Courtesy Galerie Javier Lopez, Madrid

Le Squelette / The Skeleton, 1999
360 x 90 x 40 cm
Courtesy Galerie Jennifer Flay, Paris

Le Dirigeable, 1999
Nova-jet print, plastified and mounted on PVC
300 x 450 cm
Zurich Insurance Company Collection, Zurich

La Tour Eiffel / The Eiffel Tower, 1999
Digitally retouched nova-jet print, plastified and mounted on PVC
300 x 450 cm
Private collection, Milano

Les Crânes / The Skulls, 1999
Polyester resin
7 skulls, 75 x 48 x 48 cm each
Courtesy JRP Editions & Javier Lopez Galeria, Madrid

La Ford T / the Model-T Ford, 1998-99
Reconstitution of Model-T Ford, 1923, real size with contemporary materials : wood, chassis covered with metal, authentic engine
175 x 300 x 170 cm
F.R.A.C. Poitou-Charentes Collection

La Forêt / The Forest, 1998-99
Environmental installation, with felt and synthetic lap
Variable dimensions
MAMCO Collection, Geneva

Sans titre (La Grotte) / Untitled (The Cave), 1998
Felt, wood
Variable dimensions
Courtesy Galerie Jennifer Flay, Paris

L'Orateur, 1998
Nova-jet print, plastified and mounted on PVC in 3 parts
235 x 330 cm (225 x 110 cm each)
Fonds National d'Art Contemporain, Ministère de la Culture et de la Communication, Paris

Le Tour / The Potter's Wheel, 1995
Wood round top, rotative axle, scooter ...
Variable dimensions
Courtesy Galerie Jennifer Flay, Paris

Les Machines tournantes, 1995
Wood, lycra and electric motors. Several disks with variable height and diameter driven by a slow circular or eccentric movement
Variable dimensions
Courtesy Galerie Jennifer Flay, Paris

La Machine à boule, 1993
Wood and steel ball
99 x 65 x 65 cm
Carmine Calore Collection, Geneva

Les Grues / The Cranes, 1993
3 white cranes in metal, steel balls, system of cables and levers connected to the door
Variable dimensions (cranes : 260 x 310 x 350 cm)
Courtesy Galerie Jennifer Flay, Paris