First monograph.
Published in conjunction with the exhibition
John Cornu, Assis sur l'obstacle at
Palais de Tokyo, Paris, in February 2011.
French artist John Cornu (born 1976) works with an aesthetic inherited from
Minimalism and Modernism (monochromy, seriality, modularity, the primacy of the materials), while maintaining a strong relation to (historical, architectural, societal) context and a form of contemporary Romanticism (Dionysianism, erosion, blindness, references to different sonic universes, and entropy). With an interest for modern ruins, logics of power, and anthropological gaps, the artist imbues his productions with an atmosphere at once poetic, cathartic and without compromise. Whether sculptural, performative, or installation-based, they address paradoxical forces, setting up a multiplicity of meanings and readings.