Bernard Joisten's Immersive Painting Installation at Frac Basse-Normandie

Bernard Joisten's exhibition at Frac Basse-Normandie in Caen, France, from February 5 to April 12, 2009, redefines painting by extending it beyond the canvas into architectural space. Joisten, often associated with 1990s artists like Philippe Parreno, Dominique Gonzalez-Foerster, and Pierre Joseph, now pursues a unique approach he calls 'habillage' or 'customization' of the painting using floor and walls. The ground floor installation treats the entire room as a global landscape, featuring 3D images, abstract motifs, and materials that echo each other. Dominant images include a generic car and a castle, along with a checkerboard pattern. These are rendered as digital prints on plastic canvas and in situ mural painting, creating a 'loop' for the eye, enhanced by a painted ribbon around the room and linoleum flooring underfoot. The cinematic effect recalls Joisten's earlier film work, while the futuristic environment is both physical and metaphysical, referencing cubist painting's depth and volumetric representation techniques. Upstairs, circular paintings (tondos) are enclosed in transparent spheres suspended from the ceiling, evoking air travel. The spheres cast black sun-like shadows on the walls, adding a melancholic tone. Recognizable motifs like grids and vehicles (an airplane) recur, continuing Joisten's vocabulary. The exhibition convincingly extends modernist painters' interwar research on painting-architecture relationships into contemporary art.