Philippe Pétremant's Absurd Photographic Assemblages

Philippe Pétremant creates light, fluorescent, colorful objects that appear to struggle for survival, assembled into photographic images offering a disordered, hybrid reconstruction of time and the world. His work deliberately ignores modernist structures and gimmicks, presenting bizarre assemblages that correspond to the state of the world. Pétremant treats photography as a laboratory, using collage and absurd superimpositions to create spatial discontinuities and structural inversions. The grotesque scenes mock art, painting, and reason, yet are carefully orchestrated. The artist lives and works in Lyon, born in 1976. His shows include 2005 at Musée, La Roche-sur-Yon; Galerie Le Réverbère, Lyon (with Laurent Dejente) during the 2010 Lyon Biennale; and 2010 at Le Réverbère, Lyon (series: That's all Folks!, Les Sept Mercenaires, Les Contrées nulles). François Cheval, director of the Musée Nicéphore Niépce in Chalon-sur-Saône, authored the text. Cheval's forthcoming publication is 'L'Impossible Musée de la photographie, l'ère des collusions' at the University of Lausanne, autumn 2011.