Wilfrid Almendra
Painted cast aluminium
25 x 25cm
9.84 x 9.84 in
Painted cast aluminium
11 x 28cm
4.33 x 11.02 in
Blue glasses, rock, painted cast aluminium and flower
180 x 200cm
70.87 x 78.74 in
Cathedral glasses, mallow, silicone and plexiglass
0 x 0cm
0.00 x 0.00 in
Steel, glass, silicone, concrete, plant and brass
38 x 120cm
14.96 x 47.24 in
Steel, glass, tar, silicone, lead, tin
37 x 45cm
14.57 x 17.72 in
Wilfrid Almendra
Born in 1972, in Cholet, France.
Lives and works in Marseille, France and Casario, Portugal.
In the work of the artist Wifried Almendra, ideas and materials are inseparable.
Its formal vocabulary comes from the architecture, shapes and surfaces we surround ourselves with. The materials he uses most often come from the alternative economy, barter and exchange. They put in tension questions linked to social class, to the desire for comfort and to the individual capacity for invention and poetry which is at the heart of the most normative things.
His work has benefited from personal exhibitions at the Palais de Tokyo (2017); at Fogo Island Arts, Canada (2016); at the Fondation d'Entreprise Ricard (2013).
Education
2000 École des Beaux-arts de Rennes, Rennes, France
1999 École des Beaux-arts de Lisbonne, Lisbon, Portugal
1998 Academy of Fine Arts, Manchester, United-Kingdom
Since Concrete Garden was proposed in 2011 but only realised in summer 2014, we will, either trace our steps back or go forward in time and see how this work on convergence lines and on the environment was developed. Until 2013, Almendra worked primarily on series of sculptures which functioned autonomously; however, his two last solo exhibitions – one at the art centre Passerelle (L’Intranquillité, 2013) and the other at the art centre Les Églises de Chelles (Between the Tree and Seeing It, 2014)—focused on more or less immersive installations transforming and reflecting the spaces hosting them. We will first bring our attention to these two propositions’ common element, which allows us to elaborate on the ideas developed through the piece Concrete Garden: similarly, in these two projects, it’s all about geometry, convergence lines, light and filters troubling spaces.
In L’Intranquillité and Between the Tree and Seeing It, lumps of land carrying robust plants slip out of time-worn glass panels. Even if they are arranged differently, they both bring to mind the aspect of a community garden. In L’Intranquillité, two adjacent rectangular constructions are installed within another rectangular space—that of the art centre, but in an angle placing them out of alignment.
The slight deviation—only some degrees—creates a tension in the two architectures. One can discern here both the monumentality of an old bunker1 transformed into an exhibition space and the strange instability of the artist’s construction, titled with the eponymous L’Intranquillité (2013). It is composed of worn glass panels on the one side and of metal bars supported by concrete pylons, defining a space without walls, on the other. A trench is opened up in the middle of these two rectangles, full of philodendrons, exotic plants that develop in an anarchic manner, growing towards the walls and the exterior. While in L’Intranquillité one is found in the presence of closed modules being worn out, in Between the Tree and Seeing It the almost perfect geometry of the rectangles gives way to various surfaces whose convergence lines slip away. The soil and its plants are thus sometimes contained, sometimes outside. On the other hand, the meticulous dissection of the space breaks up the unity of the old church. However this fragmentation is not subtractive; on the contrary, it is, just like in Concrete Garden, full of textures and perspectives. Instead of diving into it in one go, we wander in the Romanesque church, aimlessly following the lines drawn out by the artist.
The material of the panels installed in the twoexhibitions also adds an interesting play of perspective: the worn-out aspect of the glass gives them a porous transparency, creating a view of the space through a series of filters modifying its light and drawing new crossing lines. Our visual field is thus modified: clarity and depth are variable, revealing only by hints the nature proper to the elements at stake. The gaze is further disrupted by also grasping the winding forms of the garden’s plants, growing, as for them, without geometrical rules. They are not only attractive by virtue of their irregularity, but also their almost cotton-like matter, whose blurry lines spread beyond their own bodies, merging with their horizon which becomes—in turn—uncertain. This work on transparency is found once more in the basement of the art centre Passerelle, where the piece Désiré (2013) unfolds on a five-meter surface of a wall. Here as well, it is a question of surfaces troubling volumes: a ceramic black form, whose geometrical lines stretch out along the wall, is placed on top of two Plexiglas panels found in a community garden. In places, a surface breaks away from the plane and soars towards the interior of the room. An impression of volume thus appears, intensified by the projected shadows of the black edges and the Plexiglas, whose glass, turned yellow from the sun, draws a parallelepiped of light.
Almendra has been working with colour filters and their projected shadows since 2012: Model Home (Sonata) (2012) is a series of mural sculptures composed of materials collected in an abandoned display home. The metal structures (security railings found in the same house) contain within them coloured or frosted glass which brings a rhythmic and pictorial dimension to the work, whose shadows are cast on the walls, here and there, following the passing lights’ whims. As in Désiré, the object is made of density and volume through the play of lights.
Solo Shows
2022
Adelaïde, curated by: Muriel Enjalran, FRAC PACA, Marseille, France
Adelaïde, curated by: Sofia Lemos, Panorama - Friche de la Belle de Mai, Marseille, France
2020
So Much Depends Upon a Red Wheel Barrow, Atlantis Lumière, Marseille, France
2017
Light Boiled Like Liquid Soap, curated by: Setra Adam-Couralet , Palais de Tokyo, Paris, France
2016
Light Boiled Like Liquid Soap, curated by: Nicolaus Schafhausen et Alexetra McIntosh ,Fogo Islet Arts, Canada
2014
Between, the Tree et Seeing It, Les Églises, Centre d'Art Contemporain de Chelles, Chelles , France
2013
L'Intranquillité, Centre d'Art Passerelle, Brest , France
Reconstruction of a Monument II, Village Royal, Paris , France
Matériologique, Curated by : Zoë Gray , Fondation d'Entreprise Ricard, Paris, France
Le Splendid, Parc Saint Léger, Centre d'art contemporain, Pogues-les-Eaux , France
Second skin III, Maison du Barreau, Paris , France
2012
Yellow River, Bugada & Cargnel, Paris , France
2010
Second Skin, L'Antenne du Plateau, FRAC Île-de-France, Paris, France
2009
Killed in Action (Case Study Houses), Bugada & Cargnel, Paris, France
Wilfrid Almendra, - Go, FRAC des Pays de la Loire, Carquefou, France
Wilfrid Almendra - & Return, Zoo Galerie, Nantes , France
2008
Or Something Like That, Maison du livre, de l'image et du son François Mitterret, Villeurbanne , France
Jungle Composite, La Chapelle des Calvairiennes, Mayenne , France
Cuts Across the Let, Bugada & Cargnel, Paris , France
2007
Goodbye Sunny Dreams, Buy-Sellf Art Club, Marseille, France
Watercolors, Le Gret Atelier, École Supérieure d'Art, Clermont Ferrand, France
2006
Rock Garden, FRAC-Collection Aquitaine, Bordeaux, France
2005
De natura, Centre d'Art Contemporain de Meymac, Meymac , France
Group Shows
2022
Sors de ta réserve #1, FRAC Ile de France, Komunuma, Romainville, France
2017
Résonnance, Musée de la Reine-Bérengère, Le Mans, France
Maison Modèle, Radar, Caen , France
2016
Flatlet / abstractions narratives #1, curated by: Marianne Derrien et Sarah Ihler Meyer , MRAC, Sérignan, France
L'Esprit du Bauhaus, curated by: Olivier Gabet et Mathieu Mercier, Musée des Arts décoratifs, Paris, France
Festival Vis à Vis, curated by: Bright Lights. Big Cities, Paris, France
2015
La Chapelle Fifteen, La Chapelle des Calvairiennes, Mayenne, France
Yes to all, Treize, Paris, France
Weterer Above the Sea of Fog, Galerie Bugada & Cargnel, Paris, France
2014
The Other Sight, Contemporary Art Center, Vilnius, France
Let's Play, part of Playtime, Les Ateliers de Rennes, Biennale d'art contemporain, Galerie du cloître, Rennes , France
48°28'39"N 2°12'47"E, Les pierres se battent entre elles, curated by: Emmanuelle Day et Allison Somers , Auvers-Saint-Georges, France
The Brancusi Effect - The Archival Impulse, curated by: Vanessa Joan Müller et Nicolaus Schafhausen, Kunsthalle Wien, Vienna, Austria
Festival des Arts éphémères, curated by: Gaël Charbau , Parc de Maison Blanche, Marseille Parapanorama, Palais de Tokyo, Paris, France
L'écho / Ce qui sépare, Hab Galerie, Nantes , France
2013
Des corps compétents (la modification), Villa Arson, Nice, France
Résidence secondaire, curated by: Gaël Charbeau , MAMO Audi talents awards, Marseille, France
Archeologia, curated by: 40mcube, FRAC Bretagne, Rennes, France
Vue d'en haut, curated by: Angela Lampe , Centre Pompidou, Metz, France
De belles sculptures contemporaines, Œuvres de la collection du FRAC Pays de la Loire, Hab Galerie, Nantes , France
This is (not) music, commissaire d'exposition: Richard Leydier, La Friche de la Belle de Mai, Marseille, France
Steel et Freedom, Otto Zoo, Milan, curated by: Lara Pan , Châteaux Secrets, l'île des Embiez Fieldwork, Marfa, Texas, United States
La dernière vague, curated by: Richard Leydier, La Friche de la Belle de Mai, Marseille, France
2012
Skyscraper: Art et Architecture Against Gravity, Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago , United States
Prestige : Fantasmagories de notre temps, curated by: Julia Cistiakova, Palais d'exposition du Centre culturel de communication de Klaipeda, Lituania
#11 The Flesh, Lage, Berlin, Germany
Rob Pruitt's Flea Market, La Monnaie, Paris , France
10'000 Hours., On Craftsmanship, Mastery et Failure in Art, Kunstmuseum Thurgau , Switzerland
2011
C'est, l'amour à la plage, Musée d'art contemporain Languedoc-Roussillon, Sérignan , France
Making is Thinking, Witte de With, Rotterdam , The Netherlands
Wilfrid Almendra, Philippe Cognée, Casser la baraque, Galerie Mélanie Rio, Nantes, France
Exquises Esquisses, FRAC des Pays de la Loire, centre Athanor, Guérete, France
Écoutez voir!, Centre d'Art Contemporain, Pontmain, France
2010
America, Deserta, curated by: Étienne Bernard et Setra Patron, Parc Saint Léger - Centre d'art contemporain, Pougues-les-Eaux, France
First Ural Industrial Biennale of Contemporary Art, National Center of Contemporary Art, Ekaterinburg, Russia
Circuit céramique à Sèvres. La scène française contemporaine, Sèvres - Cité de la céramique, Sèvres , France
One Man's Mess Is Another Man Masterpiece, Galerie Bugada & Cargnel, Paris, France
Perpetual Battles, curated by: Maria Baibakova, Jean-Max Colard et Kate Sutton, Baibakov Art Projects, Moscou, Russie
Ever Prosperity, Galerie Bugada & Cargnel, Paris, France
Retour vers le futur, CAPC, Musée d'art contemporain de Bordeaux, Bordeaux, France
2009
3ème Biennale d'art contemporain d'Anglet, Anglet , France
Shadows of Forgotten Ancestors, Galerie Bugada & Cargnel, Paris , France
2008
Notorious, Le Plateau, FRAC Ile-de-France, Paris , France
Antidote 4, La Galerie des Galeries, Paris, France
Zones Arides, curated by: Patrice Joly Tucson Museum of Contemporary Art (MOCA), Tucson, Arizona, United States
Échelle humaine, curated by: Galerie de multiples et Valérie Setoz, Maison du livre, de l'image et du son, Villeurbanne, France
2007
XS, curated by: Elisabeth Wetterwald, Fondation Ricard, Paris, France
Série Noire, curated by: Frédéric Latherrade, Villa Bernasconi, Geneva, Switzerland
Dérive, curated by: Mathieu Mercier, Prix fondation Ricard, Espace Paul Ricard, Paris, France
L'Histoire d'une décennie qui n'est pas encore nommée, curated by: Stéphanie Moisdon et Hans Ulrich Obrist , Biennale de Lyon, Lyon, France
Basse déf, curated by: Nichoals Thély et Stéphane Sauzedde, Centre d'art OUI, Grenoble, France
Enlarge Your Practice, curated by: Jean-Max Colard, Claire Moulène et Mathilde Villeneuve, La Friche La Belle de Mai, Marseille, France
XS, curated by: Elisabeth Wetterwald , Galerie Espace Mica, Rennes, France
Space Oddity, Bugada & Cargnel (Cosmic Galerie), Paris, France
945 + 11, FRAC Aquitaine, Bordeaux , France
Slow Life, curated by: Yuu Takeisha, APT Gallery, Deptford, United Kingdom
2006
Zones Arides, curated by: Patrice Joly , Le Lieu Unique, Nantes, France
Zones Arides, curated by: Patrice Joly , Espace Paul Ricard, Paris, France
Aakey, CCC - Centre de création contemporaine, Tours, France
Slow Life, John Hansard Gallery, Southampton, United Kingdom
Hradacany, curated by: Alice Barbara, Yann Chateigné, David Cousinard et Thu van Tran, la Générale, Paris, France
Buy-Sellf Art club, Marseille , France
Est-ce bien de l'art ?, Abbaye du Ronceray, Angers , France
2004
35 h, Les Laboratoires d'Aubervilliers, France
It's Hip To Be Square, Zoo Galerie, Nantes, France
Buy Sellf, atelier d'artiste, Marseille, France
A ciel ouvert, Centre de création, Bazouges, france
2003
Black Block, Palais de Tokyo, Paris, France