ART CITIES:Basel-Camille Blatrix

The son of a painter and a ceramicist, Camille Blatrix initially studied graphic design in Strasbourg. “My father never really made a living out of his art, so at first I felt like I should do something safe” he says. Soon realising that it wasn’t the right path for him, he transferred to study sculpture at Beaux-Arts de Paris, where he discovered his love of “building, cutting, and working with materials that are tactile and 3D.”

By Efi Michalarou
Photo: Kunsthalle Basel Archive

Camille Blatrix presents his solo exhibition “Standby Mice Station” at Kunsthalle Basel. Machine-like in their appearance, the surfaces of his works disguise the artist’s labor, as each sculpture combines elements that are industrially fabricated with those that are meticulously handcrafted using a variety of traditional techniques. In his practice, Blatrix interjects coded references, allowing initially anonymous objects to become an apparatus for recording fleeting emotions and interactions. How a piece of random technology is suddenly really interested in the people who use it? For the 13^th Biennial of Lyon (2015), Camille Blatrix conceived “Freedom, love, speed” (2015) a cashpoint of a particular kind: this vending machine feels feelings … and speaks to its user of the sadness of the world. The visitor has to introduce his blue card and to enter into a dialogue with a machine with a design that is both futuristic and full of memories. “I always had trouble with vending machines,” says the artist. “They have never been able to give me what I needed …”  Faithful to his affective and poetic relationship to objects, Camille Blatrix conceived “Fortune” (2019) as an inanimate robot, inspired by functional objects, claiming functionality but remaining in a state of sleep. Although the narrative is the basis of the artist’s work, it eventually disappears. Camille Blatrix gives keys for reading to the visitor that he withdraws at the same time. The sculpture, whose title “Fortune” refers both to financial ease and destiny, evokes also the furniture of a kitchen, a coffin and a cryogenic object. These concrete elements constitute the starting point of the artist’s sculpted practice, evolving into a purely formal and aesthetic reflection. Camille Blatrix likes to offer the viewer the perception of a finite, minimalist work that reveals, as one moves around the work, softer and realer forms. The solid pear wood veneer, which has little veining, acts like a flat tint or skin, giving to the monolithic sculpture a pinkish hue. Thus, the feeling of a laminated object maintains a relationship with sensuality. The attention paid to the color makes disappear the technical effort of production of the artwork, as the technological objects are always more present in our society and always more attractive.

Info: Kunsthalle Basel, Steinenberg 7, Basel, Duration: 17/1-15/3/20, Days & Hours: Tue, Wed, Fri 11:00-18:00, Thu 11:00-20:30, Sat, Sun 11:00-17:00, www.kunsthallebasel.ch