Julio Le Parc: Continuel Mobile – Sphère rouge, 2001-2013

This Snapshot is a 360° view of French-Argentinean artist Julio Le Parc’s artwork Continuel Mobile – Sphère rouge (2001-2013), which was exhibited at the 2014 edition of Art Basel in Basel, Unlimited sector.

The op art and kinetic art artist Julio le Parc was born in 1928 in Mendoza, Argentina. He is founding member of the Groupe de Recherche d’Art Visual. In 1966, he was awarded the Grand Prize for Painting at the 33rd Venice Art Biennale. In 2013, he had a solo exhibition at Palais de Tokyo in Paris, France. Julio le Parc lives and works in Cachan, France.

Official description:
Julio Le Parc Continuel Mobile – Sphère rouge, 2001 – 2013 Red plexiglas, steel threads, aluminium, painted wood. Continuel Mobile – Sphère Rouge, by French-Argentinean artist Julio Le Parc is composed of almost three thousand red translucent square-shaped elements drawing the impressive shape of a 5 meter wide sphere in the air. With a great economy of means, the artist explores the notions of movement and instability. He relies on the reflection of neighboring images and of light in movement on small forms made of Plexiglas, connected simply with strings. Through his immersive practice and by eliminating reference points, he alters our perception of and our relation to the scale of the space. The numerous translucent elements are set into motion by the tiniest change in the air currents. Light is trapped in the structure, multiplied and diffused in every direction. The beams of light are projected throughout the exhibition hall, turning it into a panoptic screen. Initiated in the early sixties, the artist describes the series Continuel Mobile as a major step in his search for an open work of art: “it helped me resolve the problem that preoccupied me: the diversity of situations, in one experience, the notion of movement, the instability and the probability, the outside contingences of the work and the will to move away from the notion of a stable and definitive work.” Exhibited (selection) Julio Le Parc, Palais de Tokyo, Paris, February – May 2013 Inauguration, Espacio Cultural Julio Le Parc, Mendoza Publications (selection) Pierre, Arnaud, Julio Le Parc, monograph, Skira Flammarion, 2013, p. 123.

Snapshot: Julio Le Parc: Continuel Mobile – Sphère rouge, 2001-2013. Gallery Bugada & Cargnel, Paris. Art Basel in Basel, Unlimited sector, June 17, 2014.

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