2007
Electrical system, plastic,
metal, electric light bulbs,
253 × 223 × 10 cm
Inv. 2009.1159
Notice
In the first half of the 1990s, self-taught
artist Pierre Ardouvin came by a space in
Montreuil (an eastern suburb of Paris),
which he ran with Véronique Boudier and
Jean-François Guillon and where many young
artists had their first shows. ‘A l’écart’,
which was active for several years, enabled
Pierre Ardouvin to hone his praxis.
His works shift in a recurrent way from
‘collage’ to ‘bricolage’. He is a ‘motif’
artist, the motif being our society and
what it generates. Pruning a ridiculous
plastic Christmas tree (Élagage, 1995),
bedecking a pair of shoes with springs ‘the
better to bounce’ (1995), presenting a pair
of bunches of faded artificial flowers on
kitsch tables (Bouquets fanés, 2010), a
mock fur coat, dropped on the floor,
attached to a leash (Ne me quitte pas,
2008), not forgetting, in Love Me Tender
(2001), a dodgem car getting deeply bored
on a 4 × 3 m track without even being able
to spin round to the eponymous tune.
Pierre Ardouvin’s art is based on
recomposition, the offbeat, humour that
falls flat, the step that trips us up, the
mishap. He tells us, with a ‘cheap’
vocabulary, about basic materials, standard
structures, formatted songs, and a brace of
‘collective autobiographical narratives’.
Minor detail: his installations, his
‘augmented’ readymades, and his
environments are regularly preceded by
watercolours. Each one of Pierre Ardouvin’s
works must be capable of triggering affects
and emotions, by virtue of his capacity to
bring together known and identifiable
objects that are imbued with sociological
and historical resonance: lino, plywood,
light bulbs, car, record player, postcard,
sofa, music.
Éclair, formed by 43 bulbs fixed to the wall, is part of a larger series, and its execution was preceded by drawings. The bulbs produce a flash every two seconds. As a symbol of bedazzlement, as ephemeral as it is grandiose, but also of instant danger, the flash refers us to a fairground attraction and an unpleasant, not to say epileptic spectacle. It is perhaps also the metaphor of memory, with its flashes and failures, a materialisation of the flashback, between black holes and the spark of genius, triggering, or not, the lifecycle.
J.B.