Claire Fontaine
Claire Fontaine is the alter ego of Fulvia Carnevale and James Thornhill, who teamed up in 2004. Borrowing their name from the famous brand of school notebooks, Claire Fontaine declared themselves a "readymade artist" and developed a new form of neo-conceptual art. Unlike conceptual artists of the XX century (picture generation), the artists manipulate the form of an object, completely replacing or expropriating its inherent meaning. Developing the situationist method of détournement, Claire Fontaine imitates both iconic artworks of the XX century and everyday objects.
The artist works with a wide range of problems of capitalist society: the problem of social alienation (‘Capitalism Kills’), unequal distribution of resources (Someone Is Getting Rich, 2012), economic crises, and their consequences (Suicide Stack, 2010). In addition, Claire Fontaine criticizes art institutions. For instance, ‘This Neon Sign Was Made by… for Remuneration of…’ (2009, 2010, 2009–2014) raises the problem of authorship. Claire Fontaine incorporated the name of the object producer and the prime cost into the neon inscription. One of the neons was specifically produced for their solo exhibition ‘Fighting against gravity’ in OVCHARENKO (until 2018 — Regina). Another work, ‘Sculpture Suspendue,’ features artificial plants in hanging pots that rotate with the help of a disco-ball motor. The object is the replica of a diner's decor in Miami, where Claire Fontaine stayed for the Art Basel Fair. Blown off by air conditioning, the flowers resembled a globe's image, spurred by countless biennials and fairs.
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Первый / Fist, 2009 -
Разрушение молодит / Destroy and Rejuvenate, 2009
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Breaking Hand, 2009
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Без названия (Секретная живопись) / Untitled (Secret Painting), 2009
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Борьба с гравитацией, Москва / Лондон-Лондон / Москва / Fighting Gravity, Moscow/London-London/Moscow, 2010
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Parachute Doré, 2010
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Sculpture Suspendue, 2011
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Someone is getting rich., 2012
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ZDRAVSTVUYTE!
Group exhibition 26 Jul - 7 Sep 2023OVCHARENKO presents a new collective project in the framework of co-operation with the auction house VLADEY. The name of the exhibition of OVCHARENKO artists "HELLO!" (ZDRAVSTVUYTE!) has a double meaning. The complexity and at the same time the beauty of the Russian language allows you to find in the simple word "Hello!" both a wish of good health and a greeting at a meeting. And the meeting at the exhibition will be held with marvelous artists and their works of art.Read more
For 33 years of his work OVCHARENKO, while the first exhibition of the gallery (then called "Regina") was held in September 1990, 278 group and solo exhibitions were held. In religion "33 years" are the age of Jesus Christ — the time of perfection, the period of life when the peak has been reached. Christ's rebirth occurred at the same time when he was 33, so " HELLO!" (ZDRAVSTVUYTE!).
Vladimir Ovcharenko, founder of VLADEY and OVCHARENKO: "The time in our country and in the world is not easy. And when was it easy? It is very complicated for artists now. Their world has completely changed. For many of them it has turned out to be tragic, while others continue to create magnificent works of art. We are happy to represent the best of the best, it is a great honour and responsibility. Moscow is a world-class cultural centre. And it always will be. It deserves new great art exhibitions. And they are coming!".
Over the last year and half OVCHARENKO in co-operation with VLADEY has frequently presented personal exhibitions of its artists, among them projects made by Alisa Gorshenina, Sergey Zarva, Alexey Kallima, Pavel Pepperstein and the PPSS art group, Ivan Razumov, Inal Savchenkov, Leonid Tshe and Nestor Engelke.
Artists: Victor Alimpiev, Sergey Bratkov, Oleg Golosiy, Stas Volyazlovsky, Erwin Wurm, Alisa Gorshenina, Mikhail Dolyanovsky, Sergey Zarva, Alexey Kallima, Egor Koshelev, Vlad Kulkov, Vladimir Logutov, Jonathan Meza, Ryan Mosley, Pavel Pepperstein, Jack Pearson, PPSS art Group, Daniel Richter, Inal Savchenkov, Maria Serebryakova, Semyon Faibisovich, Claire Fontaine, Leonid Tshe, Ivan Chuikov, Dmitry Shabalin, Nestor Engelke. -
Claire Fontaine
Fighting Gravity 2 Feb - 12 Mar 2011Fighting Gravity aims to approach the threatening magma deposited inside our lives by the recent economical crisis. Since the blatant failure of the mechanisms that supported the legitimacy of liberal...Read more -
Claire Fontaine
DESTROY AND REJUVENATE 30 Jan 2009 - 21 Mar 2010Regina Gallery is pleased to announce the first solo exhibition of Claire Fontaine in Moscow, Destroy and rejuvenate. Claire Fontaine is a collective artist based in Paris and founded in...Read more
Solo Exhibitions:
2022
Air de Paris, Romainville, France
Star Reply Forward Copy Info Delete, Kunstraum Memphis, Linz, Austria
2020
Siamo Con Voi Nella Notte. Museo Novecento. Florence, Italy.
2019
Les printemps seront silencieux. Confort Moderne. Poitiers, France.
La borsa e la vita. Palazzo Ducale di Genova. Genova, Italy.
Claire Fontaine, Rolli Days. Strade e palazzo da vivere, Banca Carige, Sede Centrale. Genova, Italy.
OK NO. Synnika. Frankfurt, Germany.
Too Late to Read, Longtang, Zurich.
Your Money and Your Life. Galeria Av. Da Índia: Tomadas, Lisbon
2018
Same War Time Zone. Holding Contemporary. Portland, USA.
2017
Claire Fontaine: We The People Are The Work, KARST, Plymouth, UK
2016
Claire Fontaine. Académie de France à Rome – Villa Medici, Rome, Italy
Claire Fontaine. The Museo Pietro Canonica a Villa Borghese, Rome
MAY OUR ENEMIES NOT PROSPER. Galerie Neu, Berlin, Germany
2015
The Winter of Discontent. Carl Kotál. London, UK.
Love is never enough. Air de Paris, Paris, France
Stop Seeking Approval. Metro Pictures, New York, USA
Pretend to be dead. T293, Rome, Italy
2013
Using Walls, Floors, and Ceilings. The Jewish Museum, New York, USA
Un regard sur l’Inventaire vol.1 et vol.3. Frac Haute Normandie, Sotteville-lès-Rouen, France
Etrangers Partout. Frac Provence-Alpes-Cote d’Azur, La Bouilladisse
Some Redemptions. Metro Pictures, New York, USA
1493. Espacio 1414, Puerto Rico
Sell Your Debt, Queen’s Nails, San Francisco, USA
Group EXHIBITIONS:
2023
ZDRAVSTVUYTE! OVCHARENKO on cooperation with VLADEY. Moscow, Russia.
2022
Readymades belong to everyone. Philippe Thomas declines his identity, MACRO, Rome
Pier Paolo Pasolini. Tutto è santo. The Political body, Fondazione MAXXI, Rome
Cautere – Caroline Poggi et Jonathan Vinel, Frac Corsica, Corte, France
Vita Nuova. Nouveaux enjeux de l’art en Italie 1960 - 1975. MAMAC, Nice, France
Color as Program, Bundeskunsthalle Bonn
Burning up, All stars, Lausanne, Suisse
2021
« Les Flammes. L'art vivant de la céramique », Musée d'art moderne de la ville de Paris, Paris
2020
Claire Fontaine, Pasquarosa, Marinella Senatore, Cur. Pier Paolo Pancotto, La Fondazione, Rome
2019
More, Air de Paris, Romainville
Form and Volume, Museum of Modern Art and Western Antiquities, Cristina Guerra Contemporary Art, Lisbon
Stage of Maneuvers, Curated By_2019, gallery Gianni Manhattan, Wien
Persona grata?, MAC-VAL, Paris
2018
Proregress, 12th Shanghai Biennale, 2018
Swiss Institute Architecture and Design Series: 3rd Edition, READYMADES BELONG TO EVERYONE, Swiss Institute, New York
Dismantling the Scaffold, Tai Kwun Centre for Heritage and Art, Hong Kong
Take Me (I’m Yours), Villa Médicis, Rome
Togetherness, RWA – Royal West of England Academy, Bristol
Talismans, Fondation Calouste Gulbenkian – Délégation en France, Paris
2017
The Arcades: Contemporary Art and Walter Benjamin. The Jewish Museum, New York, USA
WAGSTAFF’S. Mostyn, Llandudno, Walles, UK
Please Come back. Il mondo come prigione?. MAXXI, Rome, Italy
Sensibile comune. Le opere vive. GNAM, Rome, Italy
2016
House of Commons, Portikus, Frankfurt, Germany
HISTORICODE: Scarcity and Supply, 3rd Nanjing International Art Festival, New Baijia Lake Museum, China
Start up. Quattro Agenzie per la produzione del possibile, Fondazione Baruchello, Rome, Italy
This is a political (painting), Kunsthall Trondheim, Trondheim, Norway
I Would Prefer Not To, 16a Quadriennale d’arte, Palazzo delle Esposizioni, Rome,Italy
Please don’t send me home, Mairie du 4ème, Paris, France
… ma l’amor mio non muore. Opere dalla Collezione Alloggia, Casa Museo Ivan Bruschi, Arezzo, Italy
T293-in-reidence, Via Gabba 1, Milan, Italy
This Is Your Replacement’, Sies + Höhe, Dusseldorf, Germany
2014
In _____ We Trust: Art and Money, Columbus Museum of Art
Domesticity V, Lucie Fontaine’s Kayu, Bali, Indonesia
WAR, MOSTYN, Wales, UK
Performance Now, Delaware Art Museum
Manif d’art, La Biennale de Québec, Canada
The crime was almost perfect, PAC Padiglione d’Arte Contemporanea, Milan
New Ways of Doing Nothing, Kunsthalle Wien, Vienna, Austria
Infinite Jest, Schirn Kunsthalle, Frankfurt, Germany
Dérèglement des Passions, Cantina Montone, Avellino and Museo Laboratorio, Città Sant’Angelo, Italy
Performance Now, Middlebury College Museum of Art, Middlebury, USA
The Crime Was Almost Perfect, Witte de With Center for Contemporary Art, Rotterdam, The Netherlands
2013
The 4th Thessaloniki Biennale of Contemporary Art, Thessaloniki, Greese
New Industries Festival’, Hartware MedienKunstVerein at Dortmunder U, Dortmund, Germany
Women’s Art Society’, MOSTYN, Wales, UK
Œuvres de la collection Philippe Cohen’, Passage de Retz, Paris, France
Reinventing the Wheel: the Readymade Century’, Monash University Museum of Art, Australia
Foreigners Everywhere’, Jewish Museum, Moscow, Russia
The Past is Present’, MOCAD Museum Of Contemporary Art Detroit, USA
Performance Now’, H&R Block Artspace, Kansas City Art Institute, Kansas City, , USA
CONNECT FOUR: THE BET’, KW Institute for Contemporary Art, Berlin, Germany
Dark to Light’, The Doctor’s House, Tower of London, London, UK
Economy’, Stills, Edinburgh / Centre for Contemporary Arts (CCA), Glasgow, USA
2012
Doppelgänger – Les Séparés, CEAAC | European Centre for Contemporary Art Projects, Strasbourg, France
Reactivation, 9th Shanghai Biennial, Shanghai, China
CARA DOMANI opere dalla Collezione Ernesto Esposito, MAMbo, Bologna, Italy
When Attitudes Became Form Become Attitudes, CCA Museum of Contemporary Art, Detroit, USA
Biennale de Belleville: Circumrévolution, Pavillon Carré de Baudouin, Paris, France
When Attitudes Became Form Become Attitudes, CCA Wattis Institute for Contemporary Arts, San Francisco, USA
Manifesta 9, Genk, Limburg, Germany
Foreigners Everywhere: Works from the Pomeranz Collection, Jewish Museum, Vienna, Austria
It is what it is. Or is it?, Contemporary Art Museum, Houston, USA
2011
Re-writing Worlds (Art and Agency), Fourth Moscow Biennale, Moscow, Russia
Art in the City, Teatro di Roma, Nomas Foundation, Rome, Italy
Monodrome, curated by Nicolas Bourriaud & XYZ,3rd Athens Biennale, Athens, Greese
Thomas Olbricht’s collection, Maison Rouge, Paris, France
Terrible Beauty – Art, Dublin Contemporary
Evidence of Bricks, Time Based Art Festival, PIA, Institute of Contemporary art, Portland, USA
Involuntary, Ford projects, New York, USA
PUBLIC COLLECTIONS:
- FRAC - Collection Aquitaine. Bordeaux, France
- FRAC - Pays de la Loire. Carquefou, France
- FRAC - Nord-Pas de Calais. Dunkerque, France
- Kadist Art Foundation. Paris, France
- La Maison Rouge. Paris, France
- FNAC Fonds National d´Art Contemporain. Puteaux, France
- MAC/VAL, Musée d'Art Contemporain du Val-de-Marne. Val-de-Marne, France
- Museum of Israel. Jerusalem, Israel
- Fondazione Sandretto Re Rebaudengo. Turin, Italy
- Fundaciíon/Coleccion Jumex. Mexico City, Mexico
- Espacio 1414. Santurce, Puerto Rico
- Museum of Contemporary Art. North Miami, U.S.A.