PIERRICK SORRIN
The artworks
Pierrick Transhistorik
2016
42 x 30,5 x 28 cm
Optical theater, HD video
Courtesy Remora Films
This artwork consists of optical theater installed inside a metal container with a window. This allows a character to appear in three dimensions, like a hologram, inside a miniature decor in real space. In this piece, the character is giving a sort of performance, jumping outside the frame of a (real) screen displaying through a succession of quotes the history of art in motion. A way of questioning or pretending to question the relationship between the individual artistic gesture and the historical dimension of art.
L’Opérateur Personnel de Chirurgie Faciale
2004
42 x 31 x 28 cm
Optical theater, HD video
Courtesy Remora Films
This artwork consists of optical theater installed inside a metal container with a window. This allows a character to appear in three dimensions, like a hologram, inside a miniature decor in real space. In this piece, the character is testing a machine that is supposed to remodel his face, but the machine destroys his flesh, and his face changes into a skull. This burlesque sketch expresses the destructive capacity of technological progress. I was interested in the reference to ancient phantasmagoria and the notion of “vanity” as a pictorial genre.
143 positions érotiques
1999
42 x 31 x 28 cm
Optical theater, HD video
Courtesy Remora Films
This artwork consists of optical theater installed inside a metal container with a window. This allows a character to appear in three dimensions, like a hologram, inside a miniature decor in real space. In this piece, the character takes on supposedly erotic poses, partnering with a pillow. He appears on a real miniature bed. The piece evokes the idea of loneliness, especially sexual, and humorously refers to the concept of model (of a photograph or painter).
The artist
Pierrick Sorin is a video artist, scenographer and film director. Since the late 1980s, he has been making short films and video installations. Well before selfies became a staple of digital media, he realized a number of video self-portraits. In short stories, where he is generally the only actor, he examines his own daily life with distance and burlesque irony, questioning the value of contemporary art practices (Réveils, De belles sculptures contemporaines – 1988). The artist takes inspiration from Méliès and pioneers of the cinema as he creates “optical theaters”. Combining handiwork with new media technologies, he stages small characters (similar to holograms) in real space among tangible objects. With an artistic attitude that, in addition to being contemporary and intellectual, also speaks to a wide audience, Pierrick Sorin has been commissioned by a number of major brands (Chanel, Cartier, Renault, LVMH, Galeries Fayette…). He also creates participative works involving the audience in visual sketches that are produced live (Vous êtes tous mes amis, Warming seat – 2008). His works have been presented in major contemporary art venues: Fondation Cartier, Centre Pompidou, Tate Gallery in London, Guggenheim Museum in New York, Metropolitan Museum of Photography in Tokyo, Museo de la Reina Sophia in Madrid… In 1998, he represented France at the São Paulo Biennale. From 2007, Sorin stepped up from miniature optical theater to live performance, in particular staging and directing operas: Rossini’s La Pietra del paragone; Pop’pea, pop-rock version of Monteverdi’s Coronation of Poppea, works presented at Théâtre du Châtelet in 2007 and 2011, Puccini’s Turandot at La Scala in Milan in 2012, Mozart’s The Enchanted Flute at Opéra de Lyon in 2013. In 2015, he presented at Théâtre du Châtelet Offenbach’s buffoon opera La belle Hélène. His theater productions are often based on the use of live video. To him, the stage is a space for creative filming in real time. The artist authored a play based on live video, 22H13, which was represented over a hundred times in France, Russia, Switzerland and South America. He also made a few music videos, including Philippe Katerine’s first MV.