Aube, by French artist Clément Rodzielski, is an unconventional publication: the book was conceived as a work of its own, from a luxurious range of editorial operations – from cutting to digital process, collage and scan to drawing – on images of the artist's past works. Aube thus reconsiders the legacy of the artists' book and the livre de peintre, and foregrounds the importance of publishing and writing as models for the practice of art.
Rodzielski's work examines and makes use of contemporary modes of production, reproduction and circulation of images. For the book Aube, he turns this process to his own work, that we see developing by fragments and previews, as if behind an openwork filter – or is it the surface of the page that is appearing through the pictures?
A poem written by the artist—an “Alba”—gives the book its rhythm: it refers to an ancient genre of poetry that describes the sun rising and lovers leaving each other. But here this movement of becoming visible and setting apart is affecting the images and their materiality, as well as the way we look at them.
A 12-page insert provides an index of the works, and an essay by art critic and curator Benjamin Thorel, about the role of poetry and inscription in the work of the artist.
Clément Rodzielski (born 1979 in Albi, France) lives and works in Paris. His works was shown at the Palais de Tokyo, and le Plateau, Paris (FR), and De Vleeshal, Middelburg (NL); more recently he had solo shows at synagogue de Delme (FR), at Maison d'Art Bernard Anthonioz, Nogent-sur-Marne (FR), and Indipendenza, Roma (IT). Rodzielski published several artists' periodicals, and he is currently part of the team of the journal May.
