Jean Denant (1979)
The work of Jean Denant is distinguished by the way he seizes the map, shapes the space and infuses it with poetic appeal. Otherness is omnipresent there. The here integrates the elsewhere. The Whole of the World calls for the assembly of its scattered pieces. The power of what binds supersedes what separates: a metaphor for reconciled humanity. *
Jean Denant initiates worksites, sets up situations and opens up gaps at the frontiers of painting, architecture, design and sculpture, developing a multi-faceted practice that raises questions about materials, laborious gestures and identities.
Jean Denant is a graduate of Applied Arts and the Toulouse Higher School of Fine Arts.
His work is today widely shown in France and abroad with personal and collective exhibitions in Paris, Berlin, Brussels, Barcelona, Geneva and on the international young artists with projects in Russia, China, in Venezuela, the United Arab Emirates, Korea, the United States..
It is part of many prestigious public and private collections such as The Carmignac Foundation, the Kingdom of Belgium, the Liedts-Messen Foundation, the FRAC Languedoc Roussillon, the Villa Datris Foundation…
La Traversée" (photo right, 7x3 meters) is a monumental work integrated into a section of fortification on the corniche of the town of Sète in southern France. This mirror-polished stainless steel cut-out reproduces the contours of the Mediterranean Sea. A glass pane stretched out to face the sea, to reflect its full truth, to enlarge the gaze, to open a window.
"Mare Nostrum" a horizontal version of the "Crossing" was the subject of a diplomatic present offered by France in the person of its president François Hollande to His Majesty the King of Morocco Mohamed VI, on the occasion of COP 22. This is a strong testimony to the importance of Mediterranean trade and the need to preserve a common environment.
A study followed for the installation of a map on the ramparts of Tangier.
A huge map of the Mediterranean is installed in the very beautiful Carmignac Foundation on the no less beautiful island of Porquerolles.
In his novel 𝘛𝘩𝘳𝘰𝘶𝘨𝘩 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘓𝘰𝘰𝘬𝘪𝘯𝘨-𝘎𝘭𝘢𝘴𝘴, 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘞𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘈𝘭𝘪𝘤𝘦 𝘍𝘰𝘶𝘯𝘥 𝘛𝘩𝘦𝘳𝘦 written in 1871, Lewis Carroll suggests that to appreciate the world one must discover its inverted image.
Jean Denant, 𝘓𝘢 𝘛𝘳𝘢𝘷𝘦𝘳𝘴é𝘦, 2018
Photos: Marc Domage
Since June 2018, in partnership with the Carmignac Foundation, an exhibition space accessible to the public, Villa Carmignac, has been created on the island of Porquerolles in order to offer temporary exhibitions, a garden inhabited by works specially created for the place as well as a cultural and artistic program.
