Maurice Blaussyld

Through the union of form and philosophy, the work of Maurice Blaussyld seeks to explore through art that which is beyond it. It seeks to conquer the concept of perfection, one which rejects any absolute end and unfolds in a continuous and wandering style, submitting itself to the potentialities of both chance and error. Often exploring themes such as absence, repetition, death, and the divine, his works are elusive and divulge little of their conceptual weight in their material translations. With successive creation dates and very often sans titre, the works of Blaussyld do not respect any simple notion of chronology or material containment. They are not revisited and reworked, rather they are constantly materialising and dematerialising and may be said to be in a perpetual process of becoming and unbecoming, without beginning or end.

The spatial and temporal coordinates that appear to exist within and between Blaussyld’s works are illusory. The perceived physical space and temporal lapse between discrete objects or iterations speak to the double regime of both unique singularity and infinite multiplicity at play across the artist’s ever-emerging oeuvre. Whether his sans titre works are expressed through okoume or oak sculptural forms, sonic installation, ink gridded paper, granite, text, or even autopsy photographs, these specific and powerfully simple materials return again and again, cut and recontextualised. They emerge as the apparition of the image, the evidence and trace of its existence.

Maurice Blaussyld’s (born 1960 in Calais, France) work has been shown in institutional exhibitions including S.M.A.K Municipal Museum of Contemporary Art, Ghent; MAMCO, Geneva; Muse?e de Rochechouart; Palais de Tokyo, Paris; Fondation Ricard, Paris; FRAC I?le-de-France, Paris; Biennale d’art Contemporain, Rennes; Institut d’art contemporain, Villeurbanne; Muse?e d’art moderne de la Ville de Paris; Le Magasin, Grenoble, Muse?e National de Monaco and the Maria Leuff Foundation, New York. His work is included in many public collections, notably S.M.A.K.; MAC’s Grand Hornu; IAC Villeurbanne; FRAC Bretagne; FRAC I?le-de-France; FRAC Acquitaine and the Centre Nationale Arts Plastiques, France. In 2013, Maurice Blaussyld was awarded the Bernd Lohaus Prize in Antwerp, Belgium.