Abraham Poincheval
Abraham Poincheval - Palais de Tokyo 03.02 - 08.05 2017, 2017
Les presses du réel - collection Palais de Tokyo
Texte de Thomas Schlesser et entretien par Adélaïde Blanc
Abraham Poincheval is an insatiable explorer.
Whether by crossing the Alps while pushing a capsule he used as his shelter, or by enclosing himself for a week in a rock, his - itinerant or static - expeditions require total physical commitment. The inhabitable sculptures which the artist conceives are laboratories allowing him to experience time, enclosure or immobilit. They are the envelope that hosts the performer, an object that disturbs the landscape, and which exists through word of mouth. Abraham Poincheval's two new performances at the Palais de Tokyo lead him to experience the temporalities of the animal and the mineral kingdoms.
Abraham Poincheval
For this artist, creation is an adventure in real terms.
Between 2001 and 2009, he undertook together with Laurent Tixador a number of extreme and absurd expeditions: digging tunnels, walking from Nantes to Metz in a straight line, camping on top of a skyscraper.
Today he operates as a solitary adventurer: he has criss-crossed the alps pushing his temporary home before him; he has lived for several days as a hermit within confined spaces such as holes in the ground or inside the skin of a stuffed bear. His experiments in confinement place both the body and the mind under stress and these slightly burlesque reclusive escapades become voyages outside the confines of time. His adventures are recorded in daily logs and in the form of sculptures.
Abraham Poincheval's works and performances were exhibited at the Musée de la Chasse et de la Nature (2014), at the Palais de Tokyo for the exhibition INSIDE (2014), at the Musée Gassendi in Digne-les-Bains (2014), at the Criée Centre d'art contemporain in Rennes (2015), at the IAC of Villeurbanne and at the FRAC PACA in 2016. He was also spotted on the top of his "Vigie urbaine" during the Nuit Blanche 2016 in Paris.
In 2017, a solo show is dedicated to him at the Palais de Tokyo.