Prix Meurice for Contemporary Art 2010/2011

Wilfrid Almendra

Galerie Bugada & Cargnel

Born in 1972. Lives and works in Cholet .

Education to the École des Beaux-Arts de Rennes. Wilfrid Almendra’s aesthetic sensibility appears to have been shaped by a very particular environment: French suburbia. In French this kind of neighbourhood is called ‘pavilionnaire’ in reference to its pavilions or villas built by the petit bourgeoisie. Each house is usually set in a small garden decorated with objets d’art, formerly made by artisans or by the inhabitants themselves, but now largely mass-produced for DIY stores such as Bricomarché. Almendra’s sculptures and installations often evoke these objets d’art, in a case of ‘high art’ referencing a ‘lesser’ rank of artistic creation.
Spend long enough looking at Almendra’s sculptures and one starts to register the ubiquity of this ‘aesthetique pavilionnaire’, not only of the ornaments placed in the drive-ways of otherwise indistinguishable houses, but also of the decorative touches added to semi-public spaces in the same spirit: the palms planted on roundabouts; the concrete patterns decorating the underside of motorway bridges; the overlooked public sculptures added to housing estates; the unused street furniture in municipal car parks. Almendra’s take on this aesthetic is ambiguous. His gaze is not without humour and a touch of satire, yet is it far from purely ironic. (Zoë Gray).

Project
Sculptures - assemblies and hybrid architectural constructions.
Within the framework of his project for the Meurice Prize, Wilfrid Almendra suggests revealing the way the town planning and the architecture of Japan combine tradition and modernity, respect for past forms and contemporary daring, and this, to put in parallel the suburban utopias present in this country and to question their future. Presentation of an installation, including sculpture and graphic works, envisaged at Art Basel.

Selected shows:
Solo shows :
2009
Killed in Action (Case Study Houses), Bugada & Cargnel, Paris
Wilfrid Almendra - Go, FRAC des Pays de la Loire, Carquefou
Wilfrid Almendra - & Return, Zoo Galerie, Nantes
2008
Or Something Like That, Maison du livre, de l'image et du son François Mitterrand,
Villeurbanne.
Jungle Composite, La Chapelle des Calvariennes, Mayenne .

Group shows:
2010
America Deserta, Parc Saint Léger - Centre d'art contemporain, Pougues-les-Eaux
One Man's Mess Is Another Man Masterpiece, Bugada & Cargnel, Paris
Perpetual Battles, Baibakov Art Projects, Moscou
Ever Prosperity, Bugada & Cargnel, Paris
Retour vers le futur, CAPC, Musée d'art contemporain de Bordeaux, Bordeaux
2009
Shadows of Forgotten Ancestors, Bugada & Cargnel (Cosmic Galerie), Paris
2008
Notorious, Le Plateau, FRAC Ile-de-France, Paris
Antidote 4, La Galerie des Galeries, Paris.