John Cornu : - Les presses du réel (book)

This monograph offers a panoramic view of John Cornu's practice since 2006, with thirty-eight works accompanied by thirty-eight texts by historians, curators, conservation experts, art critics, and contemporary artists, with as many different approaches and possible readings.

The publication has been produced entirely in black and white—a recognisable gesture in which Cornu distinguishes between what it is to really show and that which rather pertains to documentation—with a pared-back, minimal design, in line with an assertively orthonormal arrangement according to which the pieces have been classified in alphabetical order, so as to avoid any chronological reading of this body of work.

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.

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Edited by Géraldine Dufournet and Emma-Charlotte Gobry-Laurencin.
Texts by Amanda Geitner, Jean-Roch Bouiller, Géraldine Dufournet, Emmanuel Lambion, Agnès Violeau, Annabelle Gugnon, Anne Langlois, Axelle Blanc, Ludovic Delalande, Gilles A. Tiberghien, Muriel Leray, Benoît Lamy de La Chapelle, Anne Dary, Jean-Christophe Arcos, Violette Labihé, Franck Balland, Mouna Mekouar, Ann Stouvenel, Hélène Virion , Christian Alandete, Anaël Pigeat, Manuel Fadat, Richard Leydier, Christophe Viart, Francis Raynaud, Bernard Marcadé, Dorothée Duvivier, Adrien Abline, Remi Parcollet, Mathias Courtet, Mathieu Mercier, Jean-Marc Huitorel, Laurence Corbel, Marjolaine Lévy, Jérôme Dupeyrat, Magali Gentet, Marie Chênel, Julien Verhaeghe.

Published by Cultureclub-studio with La Criée, Rennes.

2025 (publication expected by 2nd quarter)

bilingual edition (English / French)

16,5 x 22 cm (hardcover)

376 pages (ill.)

30.00 €

ISBN : 978-2-9564067-9-2

EAN : 9782956406792

forthcoming