VARIATIONS
Video art works by Eric Mutel at XL Art Space
12.–28.4.2012

Open Mon–Fri 12–20, Sat 12–18. / Avoinna ma–pe klo 12–20, la klo 12–18.

Welcome to the exhibition opening on Wednesday 11.4. at 5–8 pm.
/ Tervetuloa avajaisiin keskiviikkona 11.4. klo 17–20.

Eric Mutel (b. 1973, France) has lived and worked in Helsinki for
several years. In 1997 he graduated from Université Paris 1 and Les
Gobelins, Ecole de I’image in Paris, and in recent years he has
developed video work at Le Fresnoy, in France (2006) and at Kungliga
Konsthögskolan, in Stockholm (2007).

Mutel’s practice has taken many different forms such as photography, visual art installations, video, set/stage mediums, sculpture, environmental and land art. His interest lies mainly in projects that bridge the gap between visual arts and live stage events and performances. Employing new and experimental technology Mutel focuses on the perception and use of images, memory, body, movement, time, space, energy, tension and force.

The exhibition is based on the photographic instant – fixed, frozen,
preserved memories – the works are an attempt to set the photograph in motion, to give it depth and volume. In the process, the work becomes a field of inquiry into the science, biology and geology of the image.

Photography is treated here as an organic, aqueous, ephemeral, living material. It is handled like a skin, affected by ice, a living memory, a resisting, uncontrollable material, a space of imperceptible movement. Threatened and weakened, destroyed but hyperpreserved, it becomes the raw material of its own evolution and disappearance as it takes part in the thaw of its backing.

Mutel has printed the original photographs on liquid emulsion, frozen in ice, and melted down. The photograph itself, by its structure, generates its own destruction. A digital camera has captured, frame by frame, the process of melting.


Eric’s website / Ericin verkkosivut: www.ericmutel.com

The exhibition is part of AAVE festival: www.aavefestival.org
/ Näyttely on osa AAVE-festivaalia: www.aavefestival.org

:: XL Art Space, Vuorikatu 22, Helsinki ::