Mathias Tujague’s practice, which combines installation and the production of sculptural objects, is firmly invested in the creation of participative situations and environments. In order to draw attention to what are in fact rather trivial everyday objects, he reproduces them by altering both their materials and scale in a process that not only strips them of their utility but also gives them a different presence. Though the making process is very important in his approach, very few traces testify to the handcrafted aspect of his works, which appear to have been produced in an industrial manner. In the context of his participation in the first edition of the exchange residency between CLARK and the Bordeaux-based Zébra3/BuySellf association, Tujague created KARST, a project—specifically designed for the small gallery—that is indicative of his new approach.
KARST takes its inspiration from the Naïca cave, a natural environment discovered in the year 2000 by miners from a small Mexican city. Located 300 metres underneath a mountain in the middle of a desert region, the cave contains the biggest gypsum crystals ever found, some of which measure nearly thirteen metres in length. Many have compared it with the place described by Jules Verne in his science fiction novel A Journey to the Centre of the Earth (1867), a parallel which contributes to its air of mystery.
In order to evoke the container—the cave—through its contents—the crystals—and this without modifying the layout of the room, Tujague installed irregular hexagonal structures that cross the gallery and which viewers can only move through by proceeding in the same way as if they were actually in the cave: measure the space between the structures to evaluate if it is possible to wiggle or bend one’s way through it. Since it is impossible to stay for very long in the Naïca cave, due to the almost unbearable climate created by the ambient high humidity and heat, an elaborate data recording and gathering process had to be undertaken to study the site and preserve a virtual trace of it. An aspect that resonates with the approach of this artist who is constantly navigating between the virtual and the real (each of his projects always includes a 3D modeling stage). This process is driven by the challenge of transposing the virtually developed structure into the real space of the gallery, all the while accepting the information loss and modifications that this transposition implies. Refinement and simplification are involved at this production stage, during which only the forms’ essential characteristics are maintained. The result is an environment that appears strangely Cartesian even though none of the structures in it is identical. With KARST, Tujague proposes a poetic solution for the conservation of this cave by allowing viewers to experience the space in some way, even if the various transpositions that the site is subjected to clearly produce a lag between the original and its reproduction.
Anne-Marie St-Jean Aubre |
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