This first monograph dedicated to Maxime Bondu's work includes an essay by Daniel Kurjakovic and focuses on nine of the artist's essential installations. Numerous sketches, drawings, mock-ups, archival material and exhibition views contribute to throw light on an experimental, speculative oeuvre that explores alternative readings of the world, history and society.
“Maxime Bondu's work (…) [convene] places and heterogeneous disciplines, of the historical periods and scientific fields (…). His works do not move from the large to the small and have no pretension of generalisation. On the contrary, they start from a precise detail that is insignificant in itself and could easily be unnoticed, and plot paradoxes at a societal level. It could be said that the artist works on showing space and time in a small rear-view mirror—whatever the historical age of the underlying situation or the scope of the political, scientific or social contexts that it refers to. In this respect, his works are the reflective surface of a rear-view mirror whose slightly convex shape shows what is behind us with as wide an angle as possible.”
Daniel Kurjakovic
Maxime Bondu (born 1985, lives and works in Gaillard, France) studied Art History and Archeology at the University of Marne la Vallée and graduated from the Brest Fine Art School in 2009. His work focuses on the notions of information, speculation and probability, with a strong collaborative and curatorial input. As a cofounder of Monstrare, he manages the Monstrare Camp, a community experiment set in the 30,000 sq. meter cave site of Dampierresur Loire. He has developed Bermuda, a mutualized studio project at the French Swiss border.
