Former coder, artist graduated from the Arts Décoratifs de Paris (ENSAD) and the Ecole Supérieure d'Arts de Grenoble, Bertrand Planes lives and works in Paris. His works, which he describes as High Low-Tech, take a sensitive and critical look at technology and our society. They are mainly built on the basis of the detour of everyday objects. A precursor of Upcycling, he is at the origin of the Emmaus clothing brand, the Life Clock, the Audio Vibrator and Video Mapping, among others. He is represented by the New Galerie in Paris and the Galerie Laurence Bernard in Geneva.
In 1999, he created and formalized the Emmaus clothing brand with the support of the association. In 2004 he developed and patented an audio vibrator, a tool for several live performances, one of which was broadcast from the Gaité Lyrique on Paris Dernière. In 2005 he created DivX prime in collaboration with the CNRS/LIMSI, one of the first manifestations of a movement known today as Glitch Art. In 2006 he represented France at the La Paz Biennial and proposed to bring the sea back to the Bolivians with the only technical means of the CNRS. As a precursor of Video Mapping, he developed BumpIt! a video projection system used in his installations presented internationally. In 2007 he created the Life clock, a clock whose mechanism is slowed down 61,320 times so that the hour hand only goes around the dial every 84 years. In 2011, he travelled from Moscow to Vladivostok by car: 13,500 km of documented performances made for the Moscow Biennial.
His work has been shown in solo exhibitions at the New Galerie/Paris, the Ben Kauffamn Gallery, Berlin, the Ekaterina Foundation in Moscow, the Etagi Gallery in Saint Petersburg, Laurence Bernard Gallery/Geneva, among others. He also participates in group exhibitions in France and abroad such as the Moscow Biennial, the FIAC, the FRAC, La nuit blanche, Futur en Seine, the Agnes B Gallery, the Singapore Art Museum, Den Frie in Copenhagen, the New Media Gallery in Vancouver... Among his collaborations, let's mention the CNRS, the Medialab-Sciences Po, the Citu-Paris 8, the Bon Marché, and recently the Université Paris-Saclay and the Ecole Normale Supérieure. He is also co-author of articles published in scientific journals. He represents the France of Digital Arts in Japan as part of a residency at the Kujoyama Villa in 2017″
DR
Bertrand Planes has settled on the reverse side of reality, all against it, to better tug at it. White constructivist sculpture metamorphosed through a video projection into a consumerist ode: Planes sails on the surface to better pierce its illusionism. To the furniture that he recovers, he gives a new existence. Painted in white like a ghostly imprint, the stagings dress their functional past the time of the image of their projected matter. Recently, it is with a photosensitive developer that he submitted the real to say and represent differently. His paintings are then adorned with a spectral aura between macabre and wonder. Younger, Planes became known a few years ago with media performances of his sound vibrators connected to the audio players of his pleasure guinea pigs. Planes takes the message of personalization promised by the music broadcasting industry literally: Express yourself! Since then, it oscillates between a reassembling of the entertainments and a melancholic vision of the game of appearances. A mirror ball crushed on the ground like a warning dominates with its pitiful slumped silhouette a fairy glitter. The party is over but it resounds infinitely. Planes cultivates this paradox. When he illuminates a mountain, it is with a sledgehammer. A fairy-like release.
Bénédicte Ramade