Didier Marcel

Biography

Born in 1961. Lives and works in Dijon (France).

A profound artistic curiosity for sculptural questions concerning shape, size, texture and presentation is combined in the work of Didier Marcel with the know-how of an artist capable of orchestrating craftsmen specialised in contemporary materials to conceive sophisticated results.

The often mundane motifs of the works of Didier Marcel draw from the lands of his immediate environment. The tree trunk moulds in polyester resin adopt the position of supporting columns whose fibrous surfaces perfectly reflect the ornamental character of the bark. The presentations in relief of ploughed pieces of earth, objects pulled out of their context through their artificial reproduction or through their presentation on strange devices lend his work an enigmatic distance which the miniature, dilapidated buildings, reduced to sculptures also give. Extracts of imaginary landscapes or elements of images in space, his works represent the details of a reality whose alienation underlines how the ideas that one has about nature are a cultural production. Didier Marcel is as much interested in plays of scale as he is in the sophisticated framing of his works. The very particular plinth structures, or the production in a sales showroom style, underlines the artificial character of the situation. It is with a certain elegance that the artist refers to art history without, however, citing it too explicitly.

His work has been seen at the occasion of personal exhibitions namely at MAMVP (Paris) in 2010, at MUDAM (Luxembourg) in 2009, at MAMCO (Geneva, Switzerland) in 2005, Fondation Pierre de Monaco, 2008. He participated in group shows like La Force l'Art, Grand Palais (Paris), 2009 and 2006. Public commisions include a recent work around the opening of a new tram line in Paris in 2012 and work for La Synagogue de Delme, (France) in 2003.

His work is part of prestigious collections as Centre Georges Pompidou (Paris), Musée d'Art Moderne de a Ville de Paris, Fonds National d'Art Contemporain (Paris), MUDAM (Luxembourg), or MAMCO (Geneva), among many others.