Xavier Veilhan.//

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Each year the Versailles estate hosts an event presenting a famous international artist in its grounds. Last year extravagant American Jeff Koons caused controversy by taking over the Château de Versailles to display his multicoloured works. This year it is the turn of French artist Xavier Veilhan to exhibit his work.

Xavier Veilhan was born in Lyon in 1963. He lives and works in Paris. Xavier Veilhan works in a variety of media such as photography, sculpture, film, painting and installation art.

This is an interview of Xavier Veilhan by Christoph Ecoffet for vernissage.tv:




Here are some of his most interesting installations at the Versailles estate this year:

The Large Carriage, 2009.

Insolently violet, The Large Carriage is displayed in the court of honor. Here, its familiar form is deformed by a shock wave, a genuine, dazzling trajectory placed on those very cobblestones. In an acceleration, this strange horse-drawn carriage plays on references to photographical analyses of movement done at the end of the 19th century by Marey and Muybridge. As the grand siècle (17th century) rubs shoulders with modernity, the gallop metamorphosizes into a colored and optical force.

The Naked Woman, 2009.

Borrowing this great classic from Art History, here Xavier Veilhan gives us a version of the feminine nude with sparkling metal curves. Does a monument necessarily need to be monumental? Here, like a new standardmeter, the female figure regulates the court’s balance. Its pathetic size in comparison to the architectural ensemble’s affirmation of power acts to normalize; the woman, in her ingenious nudity, regulates the universe of Versailles. While remaining immutable and commanding, she also becomes modern, contemporary and delicate.

The Architects, 2009

Because the famous personalities that have traversed these venerable alleys and perspectives, Xavier Veilhan wanted to add his own personal touch by creating his pantheon of great architects from the past, of whom Claude Parent would be the patriarch. A fulllength, classical-style portrait is thus made of each great architect, using an extremely sophisticated digital scanning technique.

The Architects: Claude Parent, Richard Rogers, Sir Norman Foster, Renzo Piano, Tadao Ando, Jean Nouvel, Anne Lacaton & Jean-Philippe Vassal, Kazuyo Sejima, Philippe Bona & Elisabeth Lemercier

More backstage pictures here .//