Jean-François Boclé is a Martinican artist. His practice mixes poetic writing with installation, painting, sculpture, video, photography, intervention in the public space and performance.[1]

Jean-François Boclé
Born1971
Fort-de-France, Martinique
NationalityFrench
EducationÉcole nationale supérieure des Beaux-Arts of Paris
Notable workTout doit disparaître! / Everything Must Go!

Outre‑Mémoire

The Tears of Bananaman
Websitewww.jeanfrancoisbocle.com

Life edit

Jean-François Boclé was born in 1971 in Fort-de-France, Martinique, Caribbean, living his childhood years in Saint-Esprit. He moved to Paris at fifteen, where he currently lives and works.[2] After his studies in Modern Literature at Sorbonne university, he was trained first at the École nationale supérieure d'art de Bourges and then at the École nationale supérieure des beaux-arts of Paris.[3]

Exhibitions edit

 
Everything Must Go! Installation at The Saatchi Gallery (London, 2019)

Jean-François Boclé participated in several biennials such as the 1st Biennial of Thessaloniki (2007, State Museum of Contemporary Art, Greece), showing "Tout doit disparaître! (Everything must go!)".[4] This is a work Bocle has repeated through his career, beginning with a show at Espace Oscar Niemeyer, in Paris, in 2001.[5] In an installation at the Saatchi Gallery in 2015, it was described as: "a sea of blue plastic bags forms an abyss, a quasi-memorial to lives lost at sea during the transatlantic slave trade."[6] He took part in a group work entitled “Integration and resistance in the global era. A critical territory” at the 10th Havana Biennial (2011, Cuba).[7] In September 2011 he participated in the 8th Biennial of Mercosur in Porto Alegre (Brazil).[8]

In 2008 the Bildmuseet in Umeå, Sweden, devoted the entire Museum to Boclé for its largest solo exhibition to date, to represent the characteristics of his art, "the wide range of media employed, the presence of precise and challenging topics, the relationship with a colonial past and a post-colonial present ".[9] In 2010, he gave a solo exhibition at the 28th Art Brussels Contemporary Art Fair.

In 2011 Boclé was Artist in Residence at the Instituto Buena Bista in Curaçao.[10] He was also part of a touring show, Fetish Modernity, which visited the Royal Museum for Central Africa (Tervuren, Belgium), the Museo de América in Madrid, the Naprstek Museum in Praha, the Museum of Ethnology in Vienna, the National Museum of Ethnology in Leiden (Netherlands), and the Nationaal Museum van Wereldculturen in Stockholm over four years. The exhibition was described in the Museo de América catalogue as: "created by six European Museums, [it] invites visitors to explore the notion of modernity. (...) This idea is expressed via several themes: criticism of the legacy of ethnography museums through contemporary art; (...)."[11][12]

Also in 2011, he participated in the International Festival of contemporary sculpture Escaut. Rives, dérives (30 cities in Northern France), and the 8th Mercosur Biennial in Porto Alegre (Brazil).[13]

Exhibitions edit

 
10th Havana Biennial

2007 1st Thessaloniki Biennial, Greece

2009 Group Show Kreyol Factory, Paris[14]

2009 10th Havana Bienal, Cuba[15]

2010 Festival of Contemporary Sculpture Escaut, Rives et dérives, France[16]

2010 31st Biennial of Pontevedra, Spain[17]

2010 Group show Global Caribbean, Miami[18]

Publications edit

Articles edit

  • Boclé Jean‑François “Outre-Mémoire Un Mémorial Sonore Et Visuel.” Africultures 2014 pp. 162–162.[19]
  • Boclé Jean‑François and Anna Seiderer. “La Peau Morte De L’Écriture. Un Entretien Avec Jean-François Boclé.” Esclavages & Post-Esclavages (20220519) 2022.[20]

External links edit

References edit

  1. ^ Boclé, Jean-François; Seiderer, Anna (19 May 2022). "La peau morte de l'écriture. Un entretien avec Jean-François Boclé". Esclavages & Post-esclavages. Slaveries & Post-Slaveries (in French) (6). doi:10.4000/slaveries.6274. ISSN 2540-6647.
  2. ^ Bonsu, Osei (2014). "Jean-François Boclé - Artist - Saatchi Gallery". Saatchi Gallery. Archived from the original on 18 April 2022. Retrieved 30 October 2022.
  3. ^ "Press Release: Lecture artist Jean Francois Boclé at IBB | Instituto Buena Bista". Instituto Buena Bista. 27 January 2011. Archived from the original on 30 October 2022. Retrieved 30 October 2022.
  4. ^ "Invitation to the openings of the exhibition "Tout doit disparaître! (Everything must go!)". biennale: 1 Thessaloniki Biennale of Contemporary Art. Archived from the original on 30 October 2022. Retrieved 30 October 2022.
  5. ^ aicasc, Posté par (7 March 2015). "Tout doit disparaître!". Aica Caraïbe du Sud (in French). Retrieved 1 November 2022.
  6. ^ Daily, Global Art (29 July 2015). "Africa meets Latin America at Saatchi Gallery". Global Art Daily. Archived from the original on 4 August 2020. Retrieved 30 October 2022.
  7. ^ "10th Havana Biennial Oficial Site". 10 July 2010. Archived from the original on 10 July 2010. Retrieved 30 October 2022.
  8. ^ "Jean-François Boclé". Maelle Galerie. 19 October 2021. Retrieved 30 October 2022.
  9. ^ "Jean-François Boclé / I Did Not Discover America". www.bildmuseet.umu.se. Archived from the original on 20 May 2022. Retrieved 30 October 2022.
  10. ^ "Instituto Buena Bista » Blog Archive » Jean François Boclé". 29 November 2010. Archived from the original on 29 November 2010. Retrieved 30 October 2022.
  11. ^ "Museums and Modernity in Transit: Fetish Modernity" (PDF). Museo de América. Archived from the original (PDF) on 30 October 2022. Retrieved 30 October 2022.
  12. ^ "Publications - Catalogues - Fetish Modernity-Belgium, Tervuren - April 2011--ref310 - Jean-François Boclé". Jean-François Boclé. Archived from the original on 21 May 2022. Retrieved 30 October 2022.
  13. ^ "Jean-François BOCLÉ" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 30 October 2022.
  14. ^ "kréyol Factory - La Villette - Les artistes". 27 June 2018. Archived from the original on 27 June 2018. Retrieved 30 October 2022.
  15. ^ "10th Havana Biennial Oficial Site". 28 February 2009. Archived from the original on 28 February 2009. Retrieved 30 October 2022.
  16. ^ Escaut & Acier (25 November 2010). "Jean-François Boclé". Escaut. Rives, dérives (in French). Archived from the original on 15 August 2011. Retrieved 30 October 2022.
  17. ^ "Bienal de Pontevedra". 21 September 2010. Archived from the original on 21 September 2010. Retrieved 30 October 2022.
  18. ^ "Global Caribbean - Official Website". 21 June 2010. Archived from the original on 21 June 2010. Retrieved 30 October 2022.
  19. ^ Boclé, Jean-François (2014). "Outre-mémoire: Un mémorial sonore et visuel". Africultures (in French). 98 (2): 162. doi:10.3917/afcul.098.0162. ISSN 1276-2458.
  20. ^ Boclé, Jean‑François; Seiderer, Anna (19 May 2022). "La peau morte de l'écriture. Un entretien avec Jean-François Boclé". Esclavages & Post-esclavages (6). doi:10.4000/slaveries.6274. ISSN 2540-6647.