Prix Meurice for Contemporary Art 2010/2011

Dominique Blais

Galerie Xippas

Born 1974. Lives in Paris.

Dominique Blais is a graduate of the École Supérieure des Beaux-Arts in Nantes and the Conservatoire National des Arts et Métiers in Paris. Imperceptible yet ever present, waves and flows are the raw material for his work. Its components are taken from the ordinary world; sounds are often everyday, as though to highlight the imperceptible sediment that runs through life. Untitled (Chandelier), which he showed at La Force de l'Art 02, is a musical composition of noises in a house at night. Dominique Blais creates the conditions in which mental representations can be formed. Much of his work plays on absence, leaving space for things to co-exist, for shifts in sense and, ultimately, the imagination. He uses the tools and idiom of the contemporary sculptor on immaterial planes, climates. An intimate world emerges. Each project is carefully staged to combine the physical act of listening with that of seeing.

Project :
Jishinha (Japanese for seismic waves) continues this exploration of the infinitesimal, the in-between and the infra-thin. Sound vibrations from earthquakes at the intersection of three tectonic plates (Filipino, Eurasian, North-American) are collected and their frequencies cast in faience, porcelain or stoneware. They become a sort of "crystallisation of danger." The artist received the Research benefit from the CNAP for the preparation of this project.

Selected shows:
Solo shows :
2010
Aposiopesis, Le Parvis, Ibos, France.
Dominique Blais/featuring François Lancien Guilberteau, inhale-exhale, Centre d'art contemporain Passages, Troyes.
L'Ellipse, Frac des Pays de la Loire, Salle Mario Toran, Carquefou, France.
En Aparté, FDC Satellite, Galerie Filles du Calvaire, Bruxelles, Belgique.
2009
Décélération, Galerie Edouard Manet, Gennevilliers, France.
Modules, Palais de Tokyo, Paris, France.
Galerie Xippas, Paris, France.

Group shows:
2010
Nuit blanche 2010, Paris
Diagonales, In Extenso, Musée d'art Riger Quillot (MARQ), Clermont-Ferrand (14/09-31/10)
Colours of sound, Parcours Saint-Germain, Vitrine Diplodocus, Paris
Living-Room, Domaine départemental de Chamarande, (30/05-3/10)
Double Blind, Arrêtez d'essayer de me comprendre!, Villa Arson, Nice
2009
NO(t)MUSIC, Fort du bruissin - Centre d'art contemporain, Francheville
23'17, Mains d'Oeuvres, Saint-Ouen, France.
Invasion of Sound, Zacheta, National Gallery of Art, Varsovie, Pologne.
La Force de l’Art02, Grand Palais, Paris, France.