Damien Bénéteau

Trained in photography, Damien Bénéteau transposes the process of capturing light into sculpture. In his works the juxtaposition of objects, movement and light serves to produce two types of sculpture, molding the field of vision as well as his materials. Drawing on minimal sculpture, Op art and neo-opticalism, he borrows from these movements: geometric aesthetics, sobriety and the appearance of simplicity. Thus, his monochromatic mobiles display deliberate neutrality and a certain mechanical coolness, compensated by the strange depth of the surface and the structures’ elegance. Their swinging or oscillating, cyclical movement combines with internal LED assemblies to transform these sculptures, which are hermetically black, into veritable visual events in infinity of hues.

Seeking visual effects rather than illusions, Damien Bénéteau employs his own sculptural vocabulary, made of gaps, shadows, ellipses and halos, metamorphosing the way the spectator looks at his works. Sculpting light enables Damien Bénéteau to reveal hidden corners within spaces, to invert contrasts to bring new forms to life, add tints and colour gradients, or redefine reliefs and depths. The dark, matt black surface contrasts with the dense light of the white LEDs, producing retinal persistence and aura effects. Damien Bénéteau thereby performs the double operation, both revealing and fixing these intangible impressions which largely determine an object's visibility.

The hypnotic repetition and continuous play of 'revealed then hidden' lull spectators into a state of contemplation, leading them to meditate on the notion of time. By mimicking such magical objects as celestial bodies, pendulums and metronomes, these mobiles in perpetual motion subtly organise a passage from the historical present, suspended during the encounter with the work, to the present of astronomical time, evocative of the macrocosm. Damien Bénéteau’s thought-provoking sculptures softly point towards the inexorable passage of time and an awareness of its eternal return. Moreover, the sculptor boldly plays on the double meaning of 'gravity', apposing the law of physics with its affective interpretation, the momentum of nature with the solemnity which it imposes.

 Florian Gaité, February 2015