Frédérique Nalbandian

Born:
1967
Residence:
Nationality:
French
Trust:
APT Berlin
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PRESS & PUBLICATIONS

  • « Du savon pour nettoyer, surtout l’esprit ». Sujet émotionnel et médium de prédilection de Frédérique Nalbandian, la sculptrice explore dans une recherche « obsessionnelle » tous les états de cette matière glissante. Sculpté, gravé, dans son état liquide, mousseux ou encore effervescent… Avec l’eau, le plâtre, le bronze et le verre comme compagnons indispensables dans ses pérégrinations artistiques, l’artiste est à l’honneur dans une exposition monographique au musée Jean Cocteau jusqu’au 15 mars 2017. Une exposition qui se patinera avec le temps, à voir et à revoir.

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BIOGRAPHY

Frédérique Nalbandian was born in 1967, she currently lives and works in Nice, France and Vintimiglia-Alta, Italy.

Solo shows include: artwork on public space Parc du Domaine du Grand-Saint Jean Aix-en-Provence / Galerie Maud Barral, Nice / Fer à Cheval Soap Factory, Marseille, France (2013); "Adduction" , Départemental Archives of Bouches-du-Rhône, Marseille / Parcours d'art contemporain "Quatre" Ass. Voyons-Voir residency Briançon & Vigneaux / International Contemporary Art Center, Carros / sound track for "27ème jour" installation work in progress with International Music Research Center, Nice, France (2012) ; "Quatre savons", Viapac Contemporary Art Road, Gassendi Museum, curator N.Gomez, Cordeliers Gardens, Digne-les-Bains, France / "Fragments sonores", sound installation work in progress, with Cécile Bonopéra psychanalyst, and Entre-Temps II, Gallery Depardieu, Nice, France (2010); S'eaux, Gallery Kamila Regent, Saignon en Lubéron, France (2009); Entre-Temps, Gallery Entropyart, Naples, Italy / Lab Gallery, curator Enrico Pedrini, New-York, USA /  Trésor, Gallery Depardieu, Nice, France ;(2008) S'eaux, installation work in progress outdoor, Gallery Kamila Regent, Saignon en Lubéron, France (2008); S'eaux, installation work in progress indoor, Gallery Kamila Regent, Saignon en Lubéron, France (2007);  "Apokalupsis", Intercommunal Contemporary Art Center, curator B.Clot-Goudard, Istres / "À creux perdu", City Gallery of Ponchettes, Nice / À creux perdu, Gallery Depardieu, Nice, France (2006). MAMAC "Hors les Murs", Nice France (2004)

Jacques Leenhardt "An artist in the garden of Epicurus", extract text catalogue, Dignes-Les-Bains, 2010

Art is usually presented in the long-lasting guise of its material. Marble or bronze are its legitimate purveyors. Here, it's quite the contrary : form comes from the kitchen and material from the bathroom. Intrigued, the spectator has lost his bearings. An everyday memory scrambles the noble message handed down from the traditions of sculpture, which this example yet seems to respect to the letter. The whole history of an art-form is overthrown by this object, and the viewer begins to wonder what will become of it when it starts to rain. With the sense of humour that is constant in her character, Frédérique Nalbandian never lets go, playing on shifting meanings and false pretences with a diabolical subtlety that is far from innocent. (...) 

Frédérique Nalbandian has been working with this very special material, soap, for several years. In the Galerie des Ponchettes in Nice, she addressed the phenomenon of erosion in reverse : first there was a bath of shapeless soap. But gradually, throughout the exhibition, evaporation left behind a hard and mysterious entity. This obscure, bituminous matter then became a "tableau".

Soap is the form of matter with which we are most intimate. It shares our lives on a daily basis, under the shower. By a kind of mimicry, as it gradually decomposes, soap takes on the form of our bodies, the curve of our hands. It becomes human in the process of disappearing, which explains why, for the spectator, soap can never be cold or anonymous. Whence the symbolic power it conveys in this garden : an industrial product made of a natural product, it is like us, a tightrope-walker balanced between nature and culture.


For additional information about this artist, visit Mutual Art