Three Artists at CRAC Sète: Paradeis, Rousseau, Hriech

From February 12 to April 25, 2010, the Centre régional d'art contemporain (CRAC) in Sète presented a group exhibition featuring Florence Paradeis, Sylvain Rousseau, and Chourouk Hriech. The show occupied the ground floor and a project room. Chourouk Hriech, a 2002 graduate of the École nationale des beaux-arts de Lyon, displayed graphic works in the project room. Her practice, described as a mythography sustained by a perpetual dance of line, had already garnered institutional and private acquisitions, with support from curator Christian Bernard. The main space was dominated by Florence Paradeis's photographs, which explore memory and staged 'decisive moments.' Her images, often hyper-real and pop-art in color, create a tension between spontaneity and fabrication. Works like Drink in Park (2006) and Chronique (2003) evoke haiku-like concision and a sense of weaponry. The exhibition included a selection of earlier works and recent productions, notably the video Till the End and about sixty original collages shown for the first time. Sylvain Rousseau (born 1979) occupied one room with a dispersed installation, including a sound sculpture Grand Cacatoès blanc, a large mural created with Yann Rondeau referencing constructivist posters and art-world celebrities (Kandinsky, Picabia, Mies van der Rohe, Ernst), and works citing Malevich. The exhibition was reviewed by Catherine Francblin.