Born in May 1968
Live and work in Paris and Rennes
Le Chevallier has been developing a substantial body of work since the end of the 1990s, one in which he brings his critical eye to bear on contemporary myths and ideologies.
His first work, Gageure 1.0 (Wager 1.0,1999), takes the “spectator-cum-guinea pig” through the world of corporate discourse in the form of a labyrinthine arborescence on CD-ROM. After this project, he produced a series of games (Flirt 1.0, 2000, a game of seduction made from American film noir movie excerpts; then Vigilance 1.0, 2001, a game of video surveillance) and interactive videos. During his artist residency at the French Academy in Rome in 2000-2001, he made Félicité (Bliss), an evocation of an idle utopian society, and Oblomov, a minimalist adaptation of the novel by Ivan Gontcharov. This cycle of interactive videos came to an end in 2005 with Le Papillon (The Butterfly), the story of a character whose life is upset by the impatience of viewers.
Le Chevallier often uses the very instruments and processes that characterize our times as constituent elements in his representations of them. Witness the way in which consumerist pathologies are conjured by a vocal telephone server (Doro bibloc, 2003) and the security utopia by a “coming attractions”-type trailer (Safe Society, 2003). In 2007, the artist created a “fair” piece for the Fiac, in the form of a painted wood polyptych, in an ironic tribute to the policies of Nicolas Sarkozy (NS).
Le Chevallier’s recent pieces work on the basis of an interference with reality. In this vein, he asked a consulting firm to propose a strategy for him to attain glory (The Audit, 2008); he traveled in procession to Brussels with a miraculous European flag (The Holy Flag, 2009); he secured a Tuileries Gardens pool with remote-controlled, toy police boats (Ocean Shield, 2009); and he set up viewpoint binoculars overlooking a hypermarket (“Slowing Your Blinking” exhibition, 2010).
As a counterpoint to these contextual projects, the artist has pursued his film work. A case in point is The 2008 Village (2010), at once a film and an installation, which presents a picaresque narrative of globalization. Or Attila’s Garden (2012), a stroll about utopia.
Solo Shows
2011
«Solipsismes», galerie Jousse Entreprise, Paris.
2010
«ralentir ses battements de paupières », au centre d’art le Parvis, Pau et Ibos.
2009
«L’audit», La Chaufferie (école supérieure des Arts décoratifs de Strasbourg).
«The Holy Flag», galerie Jousse Entreprise, Paris.
2008
«L’audit», Galerie Maisonneuve, Paris.
2006
«Jouer», La Centrifugeuse, Pau.
2005
«Il suffit d’y croire», galerie Maisonneuve, Paris.
Espace multimédia Gantner, Bourogne (territoire de Belfort).Centre culturel français de Turin.
Group shows
2013
Galerie Jousse Entreprise.
2012
«Metropolis», Arteppes, Annecy.
«Número tres, de la casa a la fábrica», La Virreina, Barcelone.
«Temps étrangers»*, Mains d’OEuvres, Saint-Ouen.
2011
«Salons de lecture», Kunsthalle de Mulhouse.
«Niet Normaal»*, Kleisthaus, Berlin.
«Science fiction?», festival Exit, Maison des arts de Créteil, et festival VIA, Maubeuge.
2010
«Manufacturing Today», biennale de Trondheim (Norvège).
«IP Détournement», centre Pompidou.
«Playful & Playable, Critica y Experimentacion con Videojuegos»*, Vitoria-Gasteiz, Espagne.
Fiac, Paris.
« Le dernier festin », galerie Jousse Entreprise, Paris.
«Son filetage mord dans la matière et sa tête tient l’assemblage», galerie Sol-Mur-Plafond, Marseille.
2009
«Au pied de la lettre»*, Domaine départemental de Chamarande.
«Niet Normaal»*, De Beurs van Berlage, Amsterdam.
«(des)-alter-est», galerie Le Carré et Jardin des Modes, Lille.
2008
«Le bruissement des images», Centre Photographique d’Ile de France,
Pontault-Combault.
«L’homme merveilleux»*, château de Malbrouk.
«Les ateliers de Rennes»*, biennale d’art contemporain.
Fiac, espace de la galerie Maisonneuve.
2007
«New Horizons», Centrale Électrique, Bruxelles.
«New Horizons», Marco, Vigo (Espagne).
«Du machinique et du vivant», La Réserve (galerie Xippas), Pacy-sur-Eure.
Fiac, Paris.
«Projections», 10neuf, Montbéliard.
2006
«Re : Re», l’Espace Paul Ricard, Paris.
«Unexpected Arthome», Arthome, Bruxelles.
«This is America»*, Centraal Museum, Utrecht (Pays-Bas).
«Coup de coeur IV : Nouvel horizon»*, Crac Alsace, Altkirch.
«Passage», Gare du Nord et à la gare de Waterloo (Londres).
2005
«GameScenes», «Piemonte Share Festival», Turin.
«Trans_images», Casino Bellevue, Biarritz.
«Populism»* :
• Contemporary Art Center, à Vilnius;
• National Museum of Art, Architecture and Design, Oslo;
• Stedelijk Museum CS, Amsterdam;
• Frankfurter Kunstverein, Francfort.
«Liste The Young Art Fair», Bâle.
«Pluriel(les) 3. Les intentions d’une collection», Cité Internationale des Arts,
Paris.
«Arrêté»*, N.O.E. Kunstraum, Vienne (Autriche).
«O.F.N.I. (Objets filmiques non identifiés)», Institut français de Barcelone.
2012
Le jardin d’Attila (vidéo)
2011
Solipsismes exposition et intervention in situ
2010
Ralentir ses battements de paupière interventions in situ
L’an 2008 (vidéo)
2009
The Holy Flag miracle
Do you feel normal? sondage
Ocean Shield intervention in situ
2008
L’audit processus de consulting
2007
NS intervention picturale
2003
Doro bibloc serveur vocal
Safe Society (vidéo)