Mark Geffriaud: Les beaux jours de A à B
a solo show by Mark Geffriaud
gb agency
from September 5 to November 4, 2015
We owe to Édouard-Alfred Martel the invention of speleology he founded by exploring underground galleries and terrestrial cavities, such as the door of Mycenae in Montpellier-le-Vieux, a stone arch he photographed in 1883. Mark Geffriaud went to the same location this summer to find the exact point of view of Martel. Then, he moved his camera 6.5 centimeters and photographed the arch. The resulting image is placed beside Martel’s in a stereoscope, an apparatus that gives photography the depth it lacks by allowing the viewer to watch simultaneously two images 6.5 centimeters away from one another, the average gap between two human eyes. Thus, with Grand-bi, Mark Geffriaud shows the door of Mycenae while bringing together two photographs separated by 132 years. This view of Mycenae door is double for technical reasons but also because it superimposes two gazes. This type of union is recurrent in Geffriaud’s work for whom interbreeding two ideas, two interpretations or two gazes is fundamental.
Mark Geffriaud
Exhibition view ‘Les beaux jours de A à B’, 2015
gb agency, Paris
Photo Aurélien Mole
Mark Geffriaud
FCTSSTRNGRTHNFCTN, 2014
Single-channel HD video installation
Projection is done through a tinted glass (30 x 40 cm)
Duration 10 min.
Edition 1/3 ( + 1 A.P.)
Photo Aurélien Mole
Mark Gefffriaud
FCTSSTRNGRTHNFCTN, 2014
Single-channel HD video installation
Projection is done through a tinted glass
Duration 10 min.
Edition 3 ( + 1 A.P.)
Mark Geffriaud
Sleeper #1, 2014/2015
Installation
Wooden plinth, plexiglas, cardboard, glass, fluorescent tube, photo lens, Carbone 14
58 x 41,5 x 84 cm
Unique piece
Photo Aurélien Mole
Mark Geffriaud
Sleeper #1, 2014/2015
Installation
Wooden plinth, plexiglas, cardboard, glass, fluorescent tube, photo lens, Carbone 14
58 x 41,5 x 84 cm
Unique piece
Mark Geffriaud
Projectile #4, 2013/2015
Installation
Silver nitrate on glass plate with plexiglas back, inserted in a standing metal frame
Glass and perpex 215,5 x 147 cm
whole Installation 217 x 153,5 x 2 cm
Unique piece
Photo Aurélien Mole
Mark Geffriaud
Auto, 2015
Installation
Software, video on youtube, wooden shelve, computor
Shelve 69 x 80 x 32 cm
Unique piece
Photo Aurélien Mole
Mark Geffriaud
Auto, 2015
Installation
Software, video on youtube, wooden shelve, computor
Shelve 69 x 80 x 32 cm
Unique piece
Photo Aurélien Mole
Mark Geffriaud
Grand-bi, 2015
Installation
Stereoscopic lens in wooden box, presented on a window
10 x 18 x 17 cm
Unique piece
Photo Aurélien Mole
Mark Geffriaud
Grand-bi, 2015
Installation
Stereoscopic lens in wooden box, presented on a window
10 x 18 x 17 cm
Unique piece
Photo Aurélien Mole
Mark Geffriaud
Bit, 2015
Engraved metal piece
0,7 x 0,7 x 8 cm
Steel
Edition 25 (+ 2 A.P.)
Photo Aurélien Mole
Mark Geffriaud
Projectile #7 - Half Past, 2014/2015
Installation
Steel base, wood, concrete, 2 steel frames, tubes in brass and stainless steel, glass, deposit of silver nitrate, page of book, stone, stalk and ball in brass
163 x 160 x 185 cm
Unique piece
Photo Aurélien Mole
Mark Geffriaud
Projectile #7 - Half Past, 2014/2015
Installation
Steel base, wood, concrete, 2 steel frames, tubes in brass and stainless steel, glass, deposit of silver nitrate, page of book, stone, stalk and ball in brass
163 x 160 x 185 cm
Unique piece
Photo Aurélien Mole
Mark Geffriaud
Projectile #7 - Half Past, 2014/2015
Installation
Steel base, wood, concrete, 2 steel frames, tubes in brass and stainless steel, glass, deposit of silver nitrate, page of book, stone, stalk and ball in brass
163 x 160 x 185 cm
Unique piece
Detail view
Photo Aurélien Mole
Mark Geffriaud
Projectile #7 - Half Past, 2014/2015
Installation
Steel base, wood, concrete, 2 steel frames, tubes in brass and stainless steel, glass, deposit of silver nitrate, page of book, stone, stalk and ball in brass
163 x 160 x 185 cm
Unique piece
Detail view
Photo Aurélien Mole
Mark Geffriaud
Monsieur Chose, 2015
Sculpture
Inclusion of a spectacle lens of sun and a fossilized piece of wood in acrylic glass
31 x 22,8 x 8,3 cm
Unique piece
Photo Aurélien Mole
Mark Geffriaud
Arrière grand, 2015
Installation
Motor of Super Polaris, newspapers, box of control and wires
Variable dimensions of the whole installation
Plinth in acrylic glass 70 x 40 x 40 cm
Motor and newspapers 40 x 32 x 28 cm ca.
Box on floor 13 x 30 x 26 cm
Unique piece
Photo Aurélien Mole
Mark Geffriaud
Arrière grand, 2015
Installation
Motor of Super Polaris, newspapers, box of control and wires
Variable dimensions of the whole installation
Plinth in acrylic glass 70 x 40 x 40 cm
Motor and newspapers 40 x 32 x 28 cm ca.
Box on floor 13 x 30 x 26 cm
Unique piece
Detail view
Photo Aurélien Mole
Mark Geffriaud
Sleeper #2, 2015
Installation
Enlarger photo bulb, electric cable, lens holder in steel, lens, steel screen, filter UV photo, carbon 14
Variable dimensions
Unique piece
Photo Aurélien Mole
Mark Geffriaud
Sleeper #2, 2015
Installation
Enlarger photo bulb, electric cable, lens holder in steel, lens, steel screen, filter UV photo, carbon 14
Variable dimensions
Unique piece
Detail view
Photo Aurélien Mole
Mark Geffriaud underlines the necessary distance for informations to cross, rearrange, substitute one to another and, indeed, transform. Whenever one combines two gazes in one vision or two memory segments, a superimposition always occurs which, because it is double, creates a confusion as well as it suggests a new direction. This editing plays with fragmentation. Perceptions snatches are taken from their contexts to be rearranged in a new synthesis. If the resulting worldviews are puzzling, it is because they have nothing to do with the rational observation at their origin.
For these reasons Mark Geffriaud is interested in the scientific observation instruments, which he uses as a technical and formal vocabulary. Thus, the shifts he makes allow him to explore the additions and losses that occur when a story is drawn out of context. The elements he borrows from science or history are always on a fragmented mode. This, because it is not a question of submitting his researches to the objectivity these fields require, but rather to move them towards exogeneous territories.
François Aubart (extract)