Stéphane Dafflon: U+25A6

Exhibition curator: Xavier Franceschi

For his first solo exhibition at a Parisian institution, Swiss artist Stéphane Dafflon entirely rethinks the various areas at le Plateau with an architectural and pictorial dimension, creating a whole new series of artworks encompassing paintings, sculptures and wall stickers. This presentation and these works change our perception of reality through the artist’s sphere of abstraction.

Wall stickers boasting a plethora of infinite colours and shades fill the space with the power of vibration like a wave resonating with the surrounding architecture.

Created on a computer to begin with and then transposed to a canvas or wall, Stéphane Dafflon’s pictorial work is always designed with a specific place or architecture in mind. It is incorporated within his work and his actions change the audience’s perception of it, visually and physically.

The long chromatic variation of shades displayed in Stéphane Dafflon’s wall installation brings an impression of movement to the different areas at le Plateau and feelings experienced by visitors reflect a certain affinity with the world of music.

Stéphane Dafflon has also been creating abstract sculptural works for several years, not restricting himself to paint. Different materials such as wood, translucent Plexiglas and stainless steel are used to produce these three-dimensional works. Painted or shimmering, these 3D objects echo the shapes of the paintings hung on the walls causing reflections, interacting with the surroundings and opening the space out to unexpected perspectives.

These transformed spaces create uninhibited visual rhythmics (originating in and detached from the pictorial theories of Max Bill in particular), combining objects, paintings and drawings with wall stickers that communicate with each another like multiple perspectives with painstakingly chosen and calibrated colours emphasising a graphic dimension with the architecture.

Through this visual assemblage of painting, sculpture, object and architecture, Stéphane Dafflon’s work portrays an original and radical vision of abstract painting, painting in the broad sense, conceived beyond media deemed as traditional such as a canvas and its frame to instigate a spatial and colourful conversation positioning the viewer at the heart of a veritable pictorial arrangement.

Stéphane Dafflon
Graduated from ECAL (École cantonale d’art de Lausanne) in 1999, where he is teaching since 2001, Stéphane Dafflon lives and works in Geneva. He has presented monographic exhibitions at the Freiburg Art center, at MAMCO in Geneva, at Frac Aquitaine in Bordeaux, at the Institute of Contemporary Art in Copenhagen and Villa Arson in Nice.

His works are present in many public collections, among which: Artothèque of Villeurbanne / Fonds National d’Art Contemporain – FNAC, Puteaux / FRAC Poitou-Charentes, Angoulême / FRAC Aquitaine, Bordeaux / frac île-de-france, Paris / FRAC Franche-Comté, Besançon / FRAC Pays de la Loire, Carquefou / Fonds cantonal d’art contemporain (FCAC), Geneva / Fonds d’art contemporain of the City of Geneva (FMAC)/ Musée cantonal des Beaux-Arts, Lausanne / Collection Kunsthaus, Aarau, Switzerland.

He is represented by the galleries: Paris Air, Paris / Xippas, Geneva, Montevideo, Punta del Este (Uruguay) / Francesca Pia, Zurich / Parra Romero, Madrid.

The exhibition is supported by Pro Helvetia, Fondation suisse pour la culture and Fonds cantonal d’art contemporain, DIP, Geneva.

Opening hours: Wednesday to Sunday, from 2 to 7pm (late opening each first Wednesday of the month until 9pm)