Infra-ordinaire: The re-enchanted everyday

For several decades now, the globalisation phenomena have incited anthropologists to reflect upon their immediate environment rather than faraway lands. From that point, the notion of 'ordinary' becomes an object of research in itself.

French philosopher George Pérec was one of the first to point out the value of analyzing "what happens every day and recurs every day: the banal, the quotidien, the obvious, the common, the ordinary, the infra-ordinary, the background noise, the habitual", rather than limit oneself to analysing the extra-ordinary. Pérec, Barthes and Certeau were some of the first thinkers who no longer explored the exotic, but focused on the endotic. Daily life was then thought to be "the cornerstone of our reality" at the heart of first-hand experience.  

This exhibition presents the work of Mireille Blanc, Louise Boulter, Laetitia de Chocqueuse and Vincent Kriste on the subject of infra-ordinary. The works on display are addressing directly the domestic environment: both our habits and our penchant for possession are called into question. The objects of our everyday are considered like "rare, new and singular things"3 from a cabinet of curiosities. Each artist defines a visual micro-sociology that translates a certain re-enchantment of daily life.

In the same vein as John Armelder's Furniture Sculpture, Vincent Kriste constructs images that oscillate between paintings and objects. His use of acrylic enables him to heighten his perception of matter and texture. Like two-dimensional sculptures, Vincent Kriste's works are a reflection as much on the appearance of the material world as they are on the reality of the banal object.

Mireille Blanc considers familiar material: trinkets, sweaters, curtains and other small items of daily life whose recent obsolescence bears witness to the passage of time as fashions come and go. Her intriguing paintings, playing as they do on the ambiguity of shapes, present images that border on abstraction. Mireille Blanc paints pieces of the real that stem from souvenir photos, and asks about the value of these objects: are they a personal story or one that is universal?  

Louise Boulter's compositions depict stories of domestic interiors. The habit and the typical elements of environmental comfort are painted by alternating solid swathes of colour and stylized objects; they integrate the very support of the work as an intrinsic component. These anonymous interior scenes suggest a chronicle of an isolated world in suspension.

Laetitia de Chocqueuse places objects in a relationship with time, thrusting them out of their original context towards new narratives. Her sculpture-objects pose questions about substances and shape through a symbolic dimension. The newspaper opens the way: for Laetitia de Chocqueuse, these fragments of daily life might just provide a better understanding of the world.

About the artists:

Mireille Blanc (b. 1985, France; lives and works in Paris).

Mireille Blanc's work has been shown at numerous solo exhibitions, notably galleries and institutions such as The Pill (Istanbul), and in France at La Maison des Arts (Grand Quevilly) and the FRAC Auvergne. In 2016 she was awarded the Prix International de Peinture in Vitry.  

Louise Boulter (b. 1990, United Kingdom; lives and works in London)

Born in Hampshire, painter Louise Boulter is based in south London. She recently graduated from the Kingston School of Art and her work has been exhibited by the Warbling Collective, London.

Laetitia de Chocqueuse (b. 1983, France; lives and works in Paris and Zurich)

Laetitia de Chocqueuse, whose work was recently exhibited at the Centre d'Art Contemporain Les Tanneries in Amilly, was selected to participate in the 59th Salon de Montrouge and the 2017 Bourse Révélations Emerige.

Vincent Kriste (b. 1979, Switzerland; lives and works in Zurich)

Vincent Kriste was nominated for the Swiss Arts Awards in 2018. Institutions that have exhibited his work include the Villa Renata and the Helvetia Art Foyer, both in Basel.  

Curated by: Laurène Maréchal