Ceysson & Bénétière

Florian Pugnaire & David Raffini

Born in 1980 and 1982.

Live and work in Brussels, Belgium.

   Education

2007    MFA, Villa Arson, Nice, France

2008    Le Fresnoy, Studio National des Arts Contemporains, Tourcoing, France

   Residencies

2016    Fahrenheit Foundation by Flax, Los Angeles, USA (D. Raffini)

2010    Pavillon du Palais de Tokyo, Paris (D. Raffini)

   Introduction

The artists met during their studies at the Villa Arson, Nice, where they graduated. They have been collaborating together on different projects since 2006. They simultaneously produce both personal and duo projects. Their duo deal with the problematic of sculpture as a "work event" and also by a penchant for the future of industrial objects.

  

   Awards and grants

2015   Prix de la Fondation d'entreprise Ricard, Paris, France

            Videonale Audience Award of KfW Stiftung, Bonn, Germany

2014   Prix des Amis de la Maison Rouge, Paris, France

The first heart-stopper: Show me, 2016, a spectacular installation by Florian Pugnaire and David Raffini. It contains many elements which to my mind are inseparable: sheets of metal presented in an almost "clinical" sequence of deformations to which they have been submitted; the carcass of a red Opel GT, painted that really vivid red proclaiming the sporty nature of a car intended for an "aristocracy" of users; a video which tells the story of its deconstruction, its dislocation, dismemberment, its programmed quartering akin to an unbearable death, shown in a sort of filmic prosopopoeia. Under the blows and thrusts of hydraulic cylinders, the Opel trembles, quivers, cracks, tears and finally collapses on the ground, suddenly become a work of art because of this ordeal.

The film illustrates what we know of mechanical machines: when they cease to function or become unnecessary, outdated, they only survive in the museums that sometimes take them in because what they can reveal of an aesthetic approach has been highlighted. What the video shows is the accelerated process of this "making something aesthetic". All works of art are thus merely a frozen, embalmed, "petrified" arrival at a formal configuration that disembodies it from its own virtù. We are entitled to indulge in shifts between emotional approach and critical analysis.

Placed on the ground, not on a stand, this "noble" vehicle, a warrior and metaphor of a swift horse, is the emblem of its driver, of its absent knight. It lies motionless. The red panels are the avatars of a single escutcheon, a single shield, the heraldry of which is reduced to its single imperial colour: the maw which we might define here as having been flayed. This Opel warrior is literally the exalted Figure, the last moments of which are recounted and illustrated in the video. This commemorative celebration crystallises into an uplifting vanity of vanities of all heroic gallops: of all illustrious lives. It is thus more of a "statue" than a "sculpture".

Yet close to a compression of Caesar in the entourage of Frank Stella and Sol LeWitt, it seems to stand out as a kind of correction to the minimalist influence of modern sculpture, a kind of replica, like a response, which carries it to the borders of new realism. It could be further reduced to a kind of avatar for the readymade. Which it is not. To a kind of illustration of the manufacturing process. Which it is not either. The expressiveness injected into it by the video recounting its ordeal prohibits any fixity of formalistic clarification. This group thus condenses all the questions that form in any experience connecting to the history of statuary and sculpture. It carries over directly to the imperious statue and it is indeed a statue of Genghis Khan masterfully created by Phillip King, to its inevitable fate which it also allows us to discern in the raised affirmation of its power.

Bernard Ceysson

Solo shows at Ceysson Gallery
Florian Pugnaire & David Raffini, Saint-Etienne
January 22 - April 14, 2022

Pugnaire & Raffini, Paris
March 28 - May 04, 2019


Group shows at Ceysson Gallery
Collective, Paris
June 27 - July 13, 2024

Sculpture parc, Panéry, Pouzilhac
July 09 - September 30, 2022

At Jean Prouvé, Offsite
July 15 - July 18, 2021

Spring Paris, Paris
May 18 - July 23, 2020

Scar/face, Paris
June 28 - August 04, 2018

Sculptures, Matters, Materials, Textures..., Offsite
September 10 - October 16, 2016

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Solo shows

2018
Ressac, Le Portique, Le Havre, France
Show me, l’étrangère, London, UK

2017
L'onde, FIAC Hors les Murs, Jardin des Tuileries, Paris, France

2016
Show me, Galerie Torri, Paris, France
Florian Pugnaire & David Raffini, Prix Ricard 2015, National Museum of modern Art - Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris, France
Art Monte-Carlo, Ricard Foundation booth, Monaco

2014
Florian Pugnaire & David Raffini, Le patio, La Maison Rouge - Antoine de Galbert Foundation, Paris, France

2013
Chjami rispondi, TORRI, Paris, France
Energie Sombre, Picasso Museum, Antibes, France
Matières temps, Contemporary Art center - Les églises, Chelles, France

2012
Florian Pugnaire & David Raffini, Cultural center - Una Volta, Bastia, France

2011
Amnesia, Contemporary space, Domaine Orenga, Patrimonio, France (D. Raffini)
Glissements , curated by : Jean-Marc Avrilla, Le Dojo, Nice, France
Berlin Paris 2011, carlier I gebauer, Berlin, Germany

2010
Hors Gabarit, Galerie Torri, Paris, France
In Fine, Friche du Palais de Tokyo, Paris, France
E figura si l'isula, fantasy island, FRAC Corse, Corte, France (D. Raffini)

2009
Expanded-Crash, National Center of contemporary Art - Villa Arson, Nice, France
Expanded-Crash, Module 2, Palais de Tokyo, Paris, France

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Group shows

2020
Printemps , Galerie Ceysson & Bénétière, Paris, France

2017
Singing stones, curated by Katell Jaffrès - Palais de Tokyo, The Roundhouse, Chicago, USA

2016
Sculptures, Matières, Matériaux, Textures..., Hors les murs, Galerie Bernard Ceysson, Luxembourg

2015
Galleria Continua, Les Moulins, France
L'ordre des lucioles, Fondation d'entreprise Ricard, Paris, France
Energie sombre, Artemovendo, Porto Alegre, Brazil
GAS Station - Part 2, Gagliardi Art System, Turin, Italy
Energie sombre, ArtVilnius, Vilnius, Lituania
Energie sombre, Athens Digital Arts festival, Athens, Greece
Videonale 15, Bonn, Germany
Chercher le garçon, curated by : Franc Lamy, MAC/VAL, Vitry-sur-Seine, France
Collective collection volet III, Le BBB centre d'art, Toulouse, France

2014
Shit and Die, curated by : Maurizio Catellan, Maria Papini and Myriam Ben Salah, Palazzo Cavour, Turin, Italy
Biennale de Belleville, Paris, France

2013
Saison 17, Lieu Commun - Espace d'Art Contemporain, Toulouse, France
Boite en valise, curated by : Cédric Aurelle, Institut Français, Athens ; Thessaloniki, Greece
Sans matières ajoutées, commissaire d'exposition : About : Blank, CNEAI, Chatou, France
Entrée libre mais non obligatoire, CNAC, Villa Arson, Nice, France
Polkapalace, Musée Municipal d'Art et d'Histoire, Bastia, France
Réinventer le monde, Sala Rekalde, Bilbao, Spain (F. Pugnaire)
Fondre, battre, briser, Le pavillon blanc - Art Center, Colomiers, France

2012
First Shanghai Sculpture Project, Shanghai Art Institute, Shanghai, China
Sunshine and Precipitation, Catalyst Arts, Belfast, Ireland
Texture/Material (Berlin Paris 2012), KLEMM'S Gallery, Berlin, Germany
Les feux de l'amour, FRAC Aquitaine, Bordeaux, France (F. Pugnaire)
Paper, MAMAC, Nice, France (F. Pugnaire)
New Abstract generation, Le Box, Fonds M-ARCO, Marseille, France

2011
La fabrique sonore, Domaine Pommery, Reims, France
Art-o-rama, Friche Belle de Mai, Marseille, France
Focus, Associated to Biennale de Lyon, Vienne, France
Programme video, Module 1, Palais de Tokyo, Paris, France (F. Pugnaire)
Collectionneurs en situation, Espace de l'Art Concret, Mouans-Sartoux, France
La Sculpture autrement, Ecoparc, Mougins, France
Que sera, sera…, CAN, Neuchâtel, Switzerland
Tout ce que vous avez toujours voulu savoir sur le blanc, CAPC, Bordeaux, France (F. Pugnaire)

2010
Dynasty, Palais de Tokyo - Musée d'Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris, Paris, France
Reset, Fondation d'entreprise Ricard, Paris , France (F. Pugnaire)

2009
Points, lignes et plans-séquences, Galerie des musées, Toulon, France (F. Pugnaire)
<< II >>, RDF Galerie, Nice, France

2008
Home Cinema, Traffic, Lausanne, Switzerland (F. Pugnaire)
Panorama 9-10, Le Fresnoy, Tourcoing, France (F. Pugnaire)
Accidents de parcours, Performance, Corte, France
Pavillon 7, Palais de Tokyo, Paris, France (D. Raffini)

2007
Temps d'images, La ferme du Buisson, Noisiel, France
Panorama 8, Le Fresnoy, Tourcoing, France (F. Pugnaire)

2006
L'égosysteme, Le Confort Moderne, Poitiers, France
Liste 09, Villa Arson, Nice, France
Génération 2006, Galerie de la Marine, Nice, France (F. Pugnaire)