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Gilles POURTIER

Born in 1980 in Romans-sur-Isère, Gilles Pourtier lives and works in Marseille. He began by studying Modern Literature before undertaking training as a glassmaker in Nancy at the European Center for Research and Training in Glass Arts (CERFAV), which led him to work for four years in London at the Surrey Institute of Art and Design University College and then at the Westminster Adult Education Service.

In 2006, he entered the École Nationale Supérieure de la Photographie (ENSP) in Arles, from which he graduated in 2009. During his years of study in Arles, he developed a personal body of work combining photography, multimedia and video. His approach is situated in an almost ethnographic vein.

It is by choosing to work in collaboration with a marble workshop that the artist apprehends the work of polished stone. The marble worker initially provides him with funerary stelae, on the surface of which we can perceive our own reflection.

Private Choice presents his series of masks, also made of marble stone. At the base of every washing machine, like a foundation, is a block of concrete that stabilizes the machine when the centrifugal force of its rotation is too strong. It is this geometric form, surprisingly anthropomorphic, that Gilles Pourtier has chosen to reproduce in marble. Here, he decides not to keep the initial position of the mechanical tool, but straightens it, creating a curious face.

Biography

Gilles Pourtier was born in 1980 in Romans-sur-Isère. He lives and works in Marseille.

EDUCATIONAL BACKGROUND

  • Studies in Modern Literature
    CERFAV (European Center for Research and Training in Glass Arts), Nancy Surrey Institute of Art and Design University College, London
    Westminster Adult Education Service, London
  • 2006 – 09 / ENSP (National School of Photography), Arles

SOLO EXHIBITIONS

  • 2022 -2023 / Filiations 2  the Albers-Honegger Donation, Espace de l’Art Concret, Mouans-Sartoux
  • 2021 – 2022 / Structures of Appearance, Point du Jour, Cherbourg
  • 2021 / Rodéo Sauvage, Château de Servières, Marseille
  • 2018 / Deucalion et Pyrrha, La Cartine, Marseille
  • 2017 / A home is not a house, Straat Gallery, Marseille
  • 2013 / Vztahy (exhibition following the creation residency), Kosice, Slovakia
  • 2011 / A little further from the other side of the street the neon lights flashed twice as slow as my heart, La Compagnie, Marseille
  • 2011 / The large repair surface, 3bisF, Aix-en-Provence

GROUP EXHIBITIONS

  • 2022 / Lifelines, Private Choice, Paris
  • 2021 / Odyssey, Private Choice, Paris
  • 2020 / Inner journey, Private Choice, Paris
  • 2019 / Affinités / Affinities, Private Choice, Paris
  • 2016 / They shoot horses, they don’t demolish barns, L’Escaut, Brussels
  • 2015 / Exhibition of the Residents' Prize from the Workshops of the City of Marseille, Friche Belle de Mai, Marseille
  • 2013 / Entretenir des choses matérielles, Forum Kunst & Architektur, Essen, Germany
  • 2012 / Ceux qui arrivent, Le Bal, Paris
  • 2012 / Le vierge, le vivace et le bel aujourd’hui
  • 2009 / Une attention particulière, Rencontres Internationales de la Photographie d’Arles

RESIDENCIES

  • 2022 / Marbrerie Anastay Residency, Saint-Remy-de-Provence
  • 2013 / Creation residency in collaboration with the photographer Anne-Claire Broc’h, February and October on the islands of Batz and Ouessant
  • 2013 / Creation residency (European Capital of Culture in 2013), Kosice, Slovakia
  • 2011 / Research residency at 3bisF, Aix-en-Provence
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