This monograph gathers a collection of essays which attempts to define the multi-form notion of “presence” formulated by Bustamante in his work.
Covering Bustamante's work as a whole, this monograph discuss the role of photography in contemporary art, the duality of sculpture in its optical/tactile relations to the viewer's body, the ideas of landscape, architectural space, and the place of the artwork. Jean-Marc Bustamante creates a photographic imagery marked by the absence and yet suggested presence of the physical body. His artistic production also takes the form of sculpture, questioning the relationship between the physical and our perception of it.
The first paintings by Jean-Marc Bustamante (born 1952 in Toulouse, France, lives and works in Paris) based off of photographs marked the beginning of this medium in the art field. Bustamante experiments with a wide variety of media, creating innovative visual suggestions. He is very attached to how the eye views the work for a mental or even psychological perception of the world. The artist has borrowed vocabulary from the specifics of photography crossing the disciplines of sculpture, painting, where he now focuses his efforts. When starting a new painting he begins with a drawing, which acts as a stencil. This process is used for each one of his works. Transformed and projected, the paint is dissolved in the color of the inks, on the surface of the transparent support that absorbs it. Bustamante represented France at the Venice Biennale in 2003 and participated in Documenta 8, 9, and 10.
