Valentin Carron

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In this new artist’s book, Valentin Carron (*1975, lives and works in Martigny, Switzerland), presents a series of collages mixing recent sculptures, details of backgrounds, and PhotoShop effects, all specially realized to be printed in this volume. * * If Carron’s sculptures mark a renewal of appropriation through the re-employment of vernacular forms that are not part of the dominant culture, the artist develops a project confusing genres: neither authentic nor kitsch, neither readymade nor really craft, his objects play with ambiguity (fake wood, fake concrete, fake bronze, etc.) and with an iconography of power and authority (public sculptures or commemorative monuments, traditional forms, etc.). * * This book reflects his sculptural practice in the two-dimensionality of the page and the space of printed matter. Designed by Gavillet & Rust, this book includes a contribution by the writer Julien Maret and is published on the occasion of Valentin Carron’s Swiss Pavilion at the Venice Biennale. * * Published in collaboration with Pro Helvetia on the occasion of the Swiss participation at the 55th Venice Biennale 2013.