‘1+1=3’ is the title of a joint exhibition by Nathalie Du Pasquier and Olivier Mosset that just opened at Kunsthaus Biel Centre d’art Bienne (KBCB) in Biel/Bienne (Switzerland). Mosset (*1944) is a central figure in post-war abstract painting and an unavoidable reference for several generations of European and US-American painters. Nathalie Du Pasquier (*1957) worked as a designer for the Memphis group in Milan until 1987 and has since devoted herself mainly to painting. The two internationally recognised artists know each other but never had the opportunity to exhibit together. Although their work is very different, they share a common attitude that combines their interest in the history of the avant-garde with a playful spirit. The invitation to a joint exhibition becomes a discussion about abstract painting: its historical burden, its decorative horizon, its «commodification» or its relationship to language.

Nathalie Du Pasquier Olivier Mosset: 1+1=3 / KBCB. Biel/Bienne (Switzerland), Vernissage, September 14, 2024.

The exhibition at the Kunsthaus features collaborative and individual works by Olivier Mosset and Nathalie Du Pasquier, exploring the intersections of abstract art with everyday life, space, and historical art movements.

The Parkett section consists of spaces:

Intermezzo 1: Mosset displays a large triptych originally meant to stack vertically but shown horizontally due to space constraints, integrating the gallery wall into the artwork.

Everyday Objects: Du Pasquier transitions from canvas to spatial elements with a decorative false ceiling and still lifes in baskets, reflecting her shift towards abstraction through everyday items.

Reminiscence of the Avant-Garde: A room where Du Pasquier’s mural incorporates Mosset’s geometric drawings, echoing Russian Constructivism and referencing Marcel Duchamp, blending their styles with historical art influences.

Motocyclette: Mosset designs a mural where Du Pasquier’s paintings hang, playing with the concept of functional painting and adding motorcycle-themed compositions, nodding to both functionality and surrealism.

Intermezzo 2: A space entirely conceived by Du Pasquier where abstraction dominates, moving beyond depiction to create an immersive abstract environment.

Science Fiction: The final room inverses the first, with Du Pasquier’s floor design suggesting utopian architecture, while Mosset’s monochrome tondos evoke planets, shifting from mundane to cosmic themes.

In the Galleries section, Mosset’s shaped canvases confront Du Pasquier’s printed motifs, challenging the distinctions between painting, sculpture, and decorative art.

In the Foyer, a repainted piano by Du Pasquier, inspired by historical art-music collaborations, serves as a functional and artistic centerpiece, reminiscent of the Aubette project.

Exhibition text (translation from German):

Nathalie Du Pasquier (1957) and Olivier Mosset (1944) are internationally recognized abstract painters who have known each other for several years but have not yet had the opportunity to exhibit together. The idea of ​​bringing the two together is due to local circumstances: on the one hand, Mosset is the author of a well-camouflaged public sculpture located just opposite the Kunsthaus Biel (Untitled (à Paul Cézanne), 2000-2004). On the other hand, Du Pasquier, who worked for a long time as a designer at the Memphis group, has designed two Swatch models that are manufactured in the watchmaking city. The pair’s discreet presence in Biel seemed pretext enough to consider a dialogue between their artistic practices. Both appreciate each other’s work and have a particular penchant for collaborations. Although their work is very different, they share a common attitude that combines their interest in the history of the avant-garde with a playful spirit. The invitation to a joint exhibition becomes a discussion about abstract painting: its historical burden, its decorative horizon, its “commodification” or its relationship to language. The two make the contrasting typology of the Kunsthaus spaces their own on three levels. The institutional and architectural context of the exhibition is an essential part of the perception of the work and is reflected in the title of the exhibition, which completes the sum of the two artistic practices: 1 + 1 = 3.

PARKETT:

Intermezzo 1
Interested in large-format painting, Mosset presents a triptych that he created for a gallery in China in 2008 on the wide wall of the corridor. Originally, these three paintings were to be hung on top of each other, forming a square. However, since the space of the Chinese gallery (as now that of the Kunsthaus) proved too low, Mosset resigned himself to showing the paintings side by side. The wall on which the work hangs appears de facto as an integral part of the composition.

Everyday objects
Since the 1990s, Mosset has gradually emancipated himself from painting on canvas to work more spatially. With this red and pink false ceiling, inspired by a Japanese interior, abstract painting slides gently towards decoration and furnishing. Below, a series of still lifes bring together various objects (stones, shells, tools…) from Du Pasquier’s immediate everyday life, presented in square wicker baskets. At the end of the 1980s, when there was an immense resurgence of interest in figurative painting in Europe and the United States, Du Pasquier first ventured into painting with still lifes. The paintings reveal a particular attention to texture and a tendency towards formal simplification of objects, which in a way act as a precursor to her abstract works.

Reminiscence of the avant-garde
This room contains a mural designed by Du Pasquier especially for the exhibition, which incorporates a series of Mosset’s geometric drawings. The play with space, the reduced palette and the rectangular shapes are characteristic of Du Pasquier’s work and are reminiscent of Russian constructivism of the early 20th century. Mosset’s geometric drawings, in turn, allow a series of words to appear, with subtle
references to Marcel Duchamp. The father of the readymade and the pioneers of abstraction are unavoidable references in the practice of the two artists.

Motocyclette
Here the process is reversed: paintings by Du Pasquier hang on a mural designed by Mosset. The walls are divided into grey and white areas. This takes up and reverses a principle often seen in public spaces, namely that the lower part of the walls is covered with a colour (usually grey) to make dirt less visible. Mosset has thus taken possession of a primarily functional painting in order to reinterpret it in the exhibition space in the manner of a painterly ready-made. Du Pasquier saw an asphalt road in the grey surface and, knowing Mosset’s penchant for motorcycles, she presents a series of compositions with engines. In addition to this wink, the play with these technical objects is also reminiscent of some surrealist images at the interface with abstraction. This ambiguity is further reinforced by the presence of unidentifiable objects, in this case small colored constructions by the artist.

Intermezzo 2
This room is – in contrast to the corridor with Mosset’s paintings – entirely designed by Du Pasquier. After the early still lifes and compositions that showcase abstract objects, the artist freed herself from figuration. The painting no longer has to depict anything; the entire room becomes an abstract composition.

Science Fiction
This last room appears like the negative of the first. Mosset’s ceiling is replaced here by a carpet designed by Du Pasquier. The abstract composition on the floor looks like a city map or utopian architecture. On the black-painted walls, Mosset’s three monochrome tondos suddenly take on the outlines of planets. While the first room evoked a relationship of abstraction to the most banal everyday life, this last room throws us more into the cosmos.

GALLERIES:
In the galleries, whose high ceilings underline the modernity of the new building, large-format works face each other. Mosset’s monochrome “shaped canvas” is directly confronted with Du Pasquier’s motifs printed on paper. From an art historical perspective, the “shaped canvas” – a term that emerged in the 1960s for paintings with unconventional formats – blurs the boundaries between painting and sculpture, while the printed papers dissolve the boundaries between original and copy, painting and decorative art. On a sensory level, the sublimation of color through the monochrome is contrasted with the playful combinatorics of the abstract motifs.

FOYER:
For the entrance, Mosset suggested that Du Pasquier repaint a piano. The collaborative work recalls the historical links between abstract art and music and is an allusion to the Aubette, a ballroom in Strasbourg designed entirely by Theo van Doesburg, Hans Arp and Sophie Tauber-Arp in 1928: architecture, decor, lighting and furniture – including a piano. A true Sistine Chapel of concrete abstraction, the Aubette was at the heart of Mosset and Du Pasquier’s initial ideas for a possible intervention in the foyer of the Kunsthaus.
They kept the idea of ​​a repainted piano that could, however, be used for concerts or performances. It is a piano made by Burger & Jacobi, the former Biel piano factory, whose history is currently on display in an exhibition at the NMB Neues Museum Biel.