Celeste Boursier-Mougenot

   

   Céleste Boursier-Mougenot Céleste Boursier-Mougenot produces music in surprising and unexpected ways through large-scale acoustic environments. Boursier-Mougenot's immersive sonic installation, from here to ear, introduces a flock of 70 brightly plumed Zebra Finches to a gallery-turned-aviary to live among iconic Gibson Les Paul and Thunderbird bass guitars. At turns ambient and melodic, a constantly changing soundscape emerges as the finches explore their environment, eating, nesting and perching on the amplified instruments. This boundary-breaking exhibition asks us to consider the way we perceive, create and interact with music while challenging traditional notions of artistic collaboration.     
 




“Like Duchamp, (Céleste) seems to understand the creative potential of random acts and non-directed participation. He's already proved in this artwork that while Keith Richards and Eric Clapton might be masters of the Gibson Les Paul, even they cannot play it like 40 wild birds - not a chance.” Will Gompertz, BBC 





Some people don’t like the finch’s music, Boursier-Mougenot has noted. Others, he said, stay for hours, perhaps mesmerized not only by the sounds they hear, but also by the ever-moving flock’s spontaneous swooping around the room.

Céleste Boursier-Mougenot, “From Here to Ear” installation for The Curve, Barbican Art Galler, 2010. (Courtesy Peabody Essex Museum via Paula Cooper Gallery/Lyndon Douglas)

Only 20 people at a time are allowed in the gallery. Bradt said it seems the birds are used to being around people, so a Hitchcockian encounter is pretty unlikely. But the feathered musicians’ doctor does have one request.
“Please don’t step on the birds!” she implored with a smile. “Watch your feet.”

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Born in 1961,  Nice, France. Life and work in Sète, France.

Formation, Prix et Bourses

2010

Nominé du Prix Marcel Duchamp. Pour participer au projet de Céleste Boursier-Mougenot : http://www.transhumus.net/

2009

Lauréat du Prix Les David pour l'art contemporain.

2004

Bourse FIACRE.

Expositions personnelles

2014

Céleste Boursier-Mougenot, Aubette 1928, Strasbourg, France (21 juin – 14 septembre)
perturbations, Les Abattoirs, Toulouse, France (31 janvier – 4 mai)

2013

Galerie Mario Mazzoli, Berlin, Allemagne (7 septembre - 2 novembre)
Clinamen, National Gallery Victoria, Melbourne, Australie (3 mai - 8 septembre)

2012             

Galerie Xippas, Paris
Portraits, FIAF Gallery, New York, Etats-Unis

Expositions de groupe

2013

NUAGE, Musée Réattu, Arles, dans le cadre de Marseille-Provence 2013 (16 mai - 31 octobre)
Le Frac se met au vert en Chalosse, Musée de la Chalosse, Montfort-en-Chalosse, France (5 août - 27 novembre)

2012-2013

The Great South, Montevideo Biennial, Uruguay (23 novembre 2012 - 30 mars 2013)
Art & Music - Search for New Synesthesia, Tokyo Art Meeting (III), Museum of Contemporary Art, Tokyo, Japon (27 octobre 2012 - 3 février 2013)
Par Nature, Centquatre, Paris, France (22 septembre 2012 - 17 mars 2013)

2012

Mobile Immobile, Musée de Picardie, Amiens, France 
CELEBRATION / Rêves de nature, Musée des beaux-arts et d’archéologie, Valence, France
Notations: Cage Effect Today, Hunter college, New York, Etats-Unis

Collections

2008

Musée national d'art moderne - Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris, France.
MONA FOMA, Tasmanie, Australie.

2007

The Marieluise Hessel Collection, CCS Bard, Annandale-on-Hudson, Etats-Unis.

2006

F.N.A.C, France.
F.R.A.C Champagne-Ardenne, reims, France.
Domaine de Chamarande, France.