Valéry Grancher
Encyclopedia
Valéry Grancher
Valéry Grancher (born 1967 April 22 in Toulon
, Var, France
) is a French
Internet
-based artist, performer, theorist, curator and lecturer.
Grancher's art is a mix of conceptual and pop art references, sometimes with a sense of humour, sometimes appropriating the fads of the day.
When Grancher started in the art world in 1995, he used email
s in his art to show the processes and exchanges of the Internet community (email art) in physical installations like 'Alone' (1995). In 1997 he used webcams in his project 'webscape', which dealt with the concept of "cybertime." In 1998, Grancher experimented with pop art
in his 'webpaintings' project. In 2002, as Google
began to dominate the Internet, he launched the "Search Art" collaborative project by creating a piece called 'Self Portrait.'
In 2005 he exhibited and sold at FIAC, the international art fair in Paris, 'the biggest Google paintings never (sic) produced.'
is a constant focus in science fictions novels, especially Philip K. Dick
's Ubik
. Grancher, regarding this literature, conceived and invented the concept of Cybertime: This virtual time is a kind of temporal collage done with webcams from across the world through networks. Webscape (1998), is focusing the real time multiplicity to react against the perspective view based on one space, one temporality.
, net.art
academism and pop art
This project has influenced several artists such as Carlo Zanni on 2001, Miltos Manetas
on 2002 and Exonemo on 2003
The Google paintings were a sold out at the FIAC
but on the other hand, there was a big misunderstanding in the art market regarding these productions: His art gallery fired Valery Grancher .
piece to an international contemporary art museum. It was a command regarding the "Being nature" collective show curated by Hervé Chandès and Hélène Kelmachter.
This piece is based on an interaction with the people who are connected to the website: Emails and words are associated with pictures shot on real time in Antarctica. Most of his project are based at this time on this kind of interactions (emails solicitations) and has influenced deeply the French art scene with artists such as (Tamara Laï, Nicolas Frespech, Annie Abrahams, Christophe Bruno
...).
crater. These territories are the origin of a piece called "Longitude 38" where three webcams situated 18° South and 38° West are focusing these territories and sending pictures on real time to the web...
Longitude 38 is also a fiction composed with texts, images and sketches: The screen is done with two frames facing each others: On the left side, a project of a mission toward the moon; then on the right side, different documents from the NASA
regarding the moon conquest missions history. On one side we have the imagery of an artist and on the other side we have the precision of the technical and scientific documents from NASA
. Longitude 38 is participating to the utopias history in between the mental space and the geographical space which is the relation from reality to fiction.
This piece was a command from the Cartier Foundation for contemporary arts during the collective show called "One real world". This show was focusing the imagery of the 20th century and his links to reality. Longitude 38 is facing art and science and is questioning The permanent tele-epistemology of our society...
This piece was shown at the Berkeley Art Museum Pacific Film Archive.
. Chill Out is an interactive installation done with one red circular carpet with colourful pillows where peoples have to lay down and relax. The peoples were able to experiment different projects based on WAP
technology: They were receiving on their mobile phone text messages with instructions regarding gestures and actions they have to do... But these actions were foolish and absurd. In Asia, the mobile phone is a kind of very personal fetish (individual mental miror). This installation also reproduces the place in the korean home where kids and parents lay down to play video games, and it questions Korean daily life regarding telecom technologies...
.
6 robots (3 crabs and 3 cockroach) are paralysed in the darkness inside a rectangle 1,20m x 1,80m. When someone is focusing on them a light torch, the robots are running after the light spot. When the light is off, the robots are frozen: this installation is dealing with a kind of behaviourism "Does our world run after much more light and technology?"
concepts such as "ready made". A "found sculpture" may be an object directly linked to human skill or technology.
Valéry Grancher (born 1967 April 22 in Toulon
Toulon
Toulon is a town in southern France and a large military harbor on the Mediterranean coast, with a major French naval base. Located in the Provence-Alpes-Côte-d'Azur region, Toulon is the capital of the Var department in the former province of Provence....
, Var, France
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
) is a French
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
Internet
Internet
The Internet is a global system of interconnected computer networks that use the standard Internet protocol suite to serve billions of users worldwide...
-based artist, performer, theorist, curator and lecturer.
Biography
Grancher is best known for selling Internet art in the contemporary art mainstream.Grancher's art is a mix of conceptual and pop art references, sometimes with a sense of humour, sometimes appropriating the fads of the day.
When Grancher started in the art world in 1995, he used email
Email
Electronic mail, commonly known as email or e-mail, is a method of exchanging digital messages from an author to one or more recipients. Modern email operates across the Internet or other computer networks. Some early email systems required that the author and the recipient both be online at the...
s in his art to show the processes and exchanges of the Internet community (email art) in physical installations like 'Alone' (1995). In 1997 he used webcams in his project 'webscape', which dealt with the concept of "cybertime." In 1998, Grancher experimented with pop art
Pop art
Pop art is an art movement that emerged in the mid 1950s in Britain and in the late 1950s in the United States. Pop art challenged tradition by asserting that an artist's use of the mass-produced visual commodities of popular culture is contiguous with the perspective of fine art...
in his 'webpaintings' project. In 2002, as Google
Google
Google Inc. is an American multinational public corporation invested in Internet search, cloud computing, and advertising technologies. Google hosts and develops a number of Internet-based services and products, and generates profit primarily from advertising through its AdWords program...
began to dominate the Internet, he launched the "Search Art" collaborative project by creating a piece called 'Self Portrait.'
In 2005 he exhibited and sold at FIAC, the international art fair in Paris, 'the biggest Google paintings never (sic) produced.'
Exhibitions
Since the mid-1990s, Grancher has exhibited at many museums worldwide, including:- Espace d'Art Concret, Honegger Albers donation, Mouans Sartoux, France (2008, 2007)
- Musée des Beaux Arts, Nîmes, France. (2008)
- New Langton Art Center, San Francisco, USA (2008, 2002)
- Pacific Film Archive Berkeley Art Museum, Berkeley, USA (2007, 2001)
- New Museum of Contemporary Art, New York, USA (Rhizome)(2007)
- Nikon Gallery Europe: "Arts aux Poles". France (2007)
- Palais de Tokyo, site de création contemporaine, Paris, France (performance, exposition personnelle) (2006, 2005)
- Centre National d'Art Contemporain, Le Magasin, Grenoble, France. (2006, 2005)
- Istambul Contemporary Art Museum, Istambul Turkey (2006, 2005, 2003)
- "Super!" 1st Triennale of visual arts, fashion and design, Hasselt, Belgium (2005).
- Musée d'Art Moderne, Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris, France (2005, 2004, 2002)
- MAMCO, Musée d'art moderne et contemporain, Geneva, Switzerland (2004, 2005)
- Museo Castagnino, Rosario, Argentina (2004).
- Galleria de arte do Sesi, Sao Paulo, Brasil (2004).
- Musée D'Art moderne de la Ville de Paris, ARC, Paris, France.(2004)
- Kunsthalle Palazzo, Liestal, Switzerland (2003)
- Turm Gallery, Hemstedt, Germany (2003)
- Biennale de Tirana National Gallery of Arts, Tirana, Albania (2003, 2001)
- MUHKA Contemporary Art Museum, Anvwerp, Belgium (2003)
- Irish Museum of Modern Art, Dublin, Ireland (2003, 2002)
- Artsonje Museum, Gyeong Ju, South Korea (2002)
- Artsonje Center, Seoul, South Korea (2002)
- Israeli center for digital art, Digital ArtLab, Holon, Israël (2001)
- Pacific Film Archive Berkeley Art Museum, Berkeley, USA (2001)
- Maison Européenne de la Photographie, Paris, France (2000)
- Museu da Imagem e do Som, Sao PauloSão Paulo Museum of Image and SoundThe São Paulo Museum of Image and Sound is a public museum of audio-visual works, established in 1970 and located in São Paulo, Brazil...
, Brasil (2000) - Fondation Cartier pour l'Art Contemporain, Paris, France (1999, 1998)
- Artspace of Australia, Sydney, Australia (1999, 1998)
- Neuer Berliner Kunstverein, Berlin, Germany (1998)
- Bonn Kunstverein, Bonn, Germany (1998)
- Documenta X Kassel, Kassel, Germany (1997)
- Ars Electronica Center (residence), Linz, Austria (1997)
- CAPC Musée d'Art Contemporain, Bordeaux, France (1996)
- ZKM, Karlsruhe, Germany (1995)
- Carillo Gil Museum, Mexico, Mexico (1995)
- Pecci Museum, Prato, Italy (1995)
- Moderna Museet, Helsinki, Finland (1994)
- Contemporary Art Center, St Petersburg, Russia (1994)
- Centre d'Art Contemporain, Bruxelles, Belgium (1994)
- Biennale de Lyon, Lyon, France. (1993)
Private art galleries
Grancher has also exhibited his work in private art galleries, including:- Lincart Gallery, San Francisco, USA (2008, 2007, 2006).
- Analix Forever Gallery (extra muros solo exhibit), Geneva, Switzerland. (2005)
- Galerie Incognito, Paris, France (2006, 2005, 2003, 2002).
- Sketch Gallery, Londres, Great Britain. (2005).
- http://www.artcart.de, Franckfort, Germany (2003, 2004)
- Galerie Rachlin LemariÈ, Paris, France (2003).
- Electronic Orphanage, Los Angeles, USA (2001).
- Haines Gallery, San Francisco, USA (2001).
- Deitch project, Jeffrey Deitch Gallery, New York, USA (2001).
- Galerie Gilbert Brownstown, Paris, France (2000).
- Galerie Chez Valentin , Paris, France. (2000).
- Tadu Contemporary Art Gallery, Bangkok, Thailand (2000).
- Refusalon Gallery, San Francisco, USA (2000).
- Galerie Glassbox, Paris, France. (1998).
- Galerie Yvonamor Palix, Paris, France (1996).
- Galerie Patrick Martin, Lyon, France (1995).
Permanent Collections
- Cabinet des estampes du musée d'Art et d'Histoire de Genêve, Switzerland. (Dos drawing)
- Rhizome artbase Net and media collection, New Museum - New York: USA
- http://www.computerfinearts.com: Net and media art collection - New York, USA: "Jerusalem".(website) 2001
- Maison Européenne de la Photographie, Art Outsiders:Paris, France: "heart time / time heat".(website) 2001
- Fond National d'Art Contemporain, FNAC, Paris, France: "Reposoirs d'écran" (screensaver), "On Air" (VJ performance saved on DVD) 2000.
- Berkeley Art Museum Pacific Film Archive, Berkeley, USA: "24h00" (website) 1999 - 2000
- La Fondation Cartier pour l'Art Contemporain, Paris, France: "Longitude 38" (site internet) 1999, "Self" (website) 1998
- Centre d'art contemporain de St Fons, St Fons, France: "Ulysse" (video) 1996
- ZKM Media museum (video), Karlsruhe, Allemagne: "Memory" (video) 1994 - 1995
- Carillo Gil Contemporary art museum, Mexico, Mexique: "Memory" (video) 1994, "U-Topos" ( installation Réalité Virtuelle) 1995
- Le nouveau musée, l'institut d'art contemporain, Villeurbanne, France: "Epridemik Remix" (video coproduced with Benoit Berry) 1993
Webscape (1998)
UbiquityUbiquity
Ubiquity is a synonym for omnipresence, the property of being present everywhere.Ubiquity may also refer to:* Ubiquity , a simple graphical installer made for the Ubuntu operating system* Ubiquity Records, an American music label...
is a constant focus in science fictions novels, especially Philip K. Dick
Philip K. Dick
Philip Kindred Dick was an American novelist, short story writer and essayist whose published work is almost entirely in the science fiction genre. Dick explored sociological, political and metaphysical themes in novels dominated by monopolistic corporations, authoritarian governments and altered...
's Ubik
Ubik
Ubik is a 1969 science fiction novel by American writer Philip K. Dick. Critic Lev Grossman described it as "a deeply unsettling existential horror story, a nightmare you'll never be sure you've woken up from."-Plot synopsis:...
. Grancher, regarding this literature, conceived and invented the concept of Cybertime: This virtual time is a kind of temporal collage done with webcams from across the world through networks. Webscape (1998), is focusing the real time multiplicity to react against the perspective view based on one space, one temporality.
Webpainting (1998)
On 1998, Valery Grancher started "Webpaintings", an ironic production regarding conceptual paintingConceptual art
Conceptual art is art in which the concept or idea involved in the work take precedence over traditional aesthetic and material concerns. Many of the works, sometimes called installations, of the artist Sol LeWitt may be constructed by anyone simply by following a set of written instructions...
, net.art
Net.art
"net.art" refers to a group of artists who worked in the medium of Internet art from 1994. The main members of this movement are Vuk Ćosić, Jodi.org, Alexei Shulgin, Olia Lialina, and Heath Bunting...
academism and pop art
Pop art
Pop art is an art movement that emerged in the mid 1950s in Britain and in the late 1950s in the United States. Pop art challenged tradition by asserting that an artist's use of the mass-produced visual commodities of popular culture is contiguous with the perspective of fine art...
This project has influenced several artists such as Carlo Zanni on 2001, Miltos Manetas
Miltos Manetas
Miltos Manetas is a Greek painter and multimedia artist. He currently lives and works in HighgateManetas has created Internet Art as well as paintings of cables, computers, video games and Internet websites. His work has been collected by Charles Saatchi...
on 2002 and Exonemo on 2003
The Google paintings were a sold out at the FIAC
Fiac
Fiac is a commune in the Tarn department in southern France....
but on the other hand, there was a big misunderstanding in the art market regarding these productions: His art gallery fired Valery Grancher .
Self (1998)
On 1998 The Cartier Foundation for contemporary art in Paris has formalized with Valéry Grancher the selling of a net.artNet.art
"net.art" refers to a group of artists who worked in the medium of Internet art from 1994. The main members of this movement are Vuk Ćosić, Jodi.org, Alexei Shulgin, Olia Lialina, and Heath Bunting...
piece to an international contemporary art museum. It was a command regarding the "Being nature" collective show curated by Hervé Chandès and Hélène Kelmachter.
This piece is based on an interaction with the people who are connected to the website: Emails and words are associated with pictures shot on real time in Antarctica. Most of his project are based at this time on this kind of interactions (emails solicitations) and has influenced deeply the French art scene with artists such as (Tamara Laï, Nicolas Frespech, Annie Abrahams, Christophe Bruno
Christophe Bruno
Christophe Bruno is a French artist. He began his artistic activity in 2001, influenced by the net.art movement. His thesis is that through the web, and especially through the ability to search and monitor it thoroughly by means of Google, we are heading towards a global text that among other...
...).
Longitude 38 (1999)
Valéry Grancher is extending his nomadism towards the space conquest... He has bought three territories on the moon closed to the GassendiGassendi
* Pierre Gassendi was a French philosopher, scientist and mathematician* Gassendi is a large crater on the Moon named after him...
crater. These territories are the origin of a piece called "Longitude 38" where three webcams situated 18° South and 38° West are focusing these territories and sending pictures on real time to the web...
Longitude 38 is also a fiction composed with texts, images and sketches: The screen is done with two frames facing each others: On the left side, a project of a mission toward the moon; then on the right side, different documents from the NASA
NASA
The National Aeronautics and Space Administration is the agency of the United States government that is responsible for the nation's civilian space program and for aeronautics and aerospace research...
regarding the moon conquest missions history. On one side we have the imagery of an artist and on the other side we have the precision of the technical and scientific documents from NASA
NASA
The National Aeronautics and Space Administration is the agency of the United States government that is responsible for the nation's civilian space program and for aeronautics and aerospace research...
. Longitude 38 is participating to the utopias history in between the mental space and the geographical space which is the relation from reality to fiction.
This piece was a command from the Cartier Foundation for contemporary arts during the collective show called "One real world". This show was focusing the imagery of the 20th century and his links to reality. Longitude 38 is facing art and science and is questioning The permanent tele-epistemology of our society...
24h00 (2000)
This piece was conceived on line on 2000. It's showing life samples caught during 24 hours. It was done with the participation of 24 students from UC Berkeley and was inspired by the book of Roland Barthes La chambre claire. 24h00 is playing with 24 epiphanies based on time and experiences. After having synchronised their watches, the student has shot 24 pictures from 12 am to 12 am the day after during 24 hours.This piece was shown at the Berkeley Art Museum Pacific Film Archive.
Heart time / Time Heat (2001)
Science Fiction is worming one's way into daily life, "Heart Time / Time Heat" is offering a clock based on heart rhythm: no earth attraction, no earth travel around the sun, this clock is sending you in deep universe.Chill Out (2002)
Produced for Less Ordinary, a French Art Scene (curator Sungwon Kim) at the Artsonje Contemporary Art Center on June April 2002 in SeoulSeoul
Seoul , officially the Seoul Special City, is the capital and largest metropolis of South Korea. A megacity with a population of over 10 million, it is the largest city proper in the OECD developed world...
. Chill Out is an interactive installation done with one red circular carpet with colourful pillows where peoples have to lay down and relax. The peoples were able to experiment different projects based on WAP
Wireless Application Protocol
Wireless Application Protocol is a technical standard for accessing information over a mobile wireless network.A WAP browser is a web browser for mobile devices such as mobile phones that uses the protocol.Before the introduction of WAP, mobile service providers had limited opportunities to offer...
technology: They were receiving on their mobile phone text messages with instructions regarding gestures and actions they have to do... But these actions were foolish and absurd. In Asia, the mobile phone is a kind of very personal fetish (individual mental miror). This installation also reproduces the place in the korean home where kids and parents lay down to play video games, and it questions Korean daily life regarding telecom technologies...
Tracks (2002)
This piece was done for the same show in Korea « Less Ordinary, a French Art Scene » (curator Sungwon Kim) at the Artsonje Contemporary Art Center on June April 2002 in SeoulSeoul
Seoul , officially the Seoul Special City, is the capital and largest metropolis of South Korea. A megacity with a population of over 10 million, it is the largest city proper in the OECD developed world...
.
6 robots (3 crabs and 3 cockroach) are paralysed in the darkness inside a rectangle 1,20m x 1,80m. When someone is focusing on them a light torch, the robots are running after the light spot. When the light is off, the robots are frozen: this installation is dealing with a kind of behaviourism "Does our world run after much more light and technology?"
Found Sculpture on Mars (2005)
"Found sculpture" is directly linked to Marcel DuchampMarcel Duchamp
Marcel Duchamp was a French artist whose work is most often associated with the Dadaist and Surrealist movements. Considered by some to be one of the most important artists of the 20th century, Duchamp's output influenced the development of post-World War I Western art...
concepts such as "ready made". A "found sculpture" may be an object directly linked to human skill or technology.