Name Thierry Geoffroy Role Artist | ||
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borders denmark by thierry geoffroy colonel
Thierry Geoffroy (born 1961), also known as Colonel, is a Danish-French artist, living in Copenhagen, Denmark. He is a Conceptual artist using a wide variety of media including video and installations, often collaborative with other artists.
Contents
- borders denmark by thierry geoffroy colonel
- apathy joshua oppenheimer talk with artist thierry geoffroy part 1
- Format Art
- Emergency Room
- Biennalist
- Other Work
- Manifests
- Publications
- Awards
- Solo exhibitions
- References
apathy joshua oppenheimer talk with artist thierry geoffroy part 1
Format Art
Geoffroy refers to his work as "format art", since the format of the artwork is the artwork. In 1989 he wrote a manifest on five types of moving exhibitions (Manifeste – Les differents Types de moving Exhibitions). Since then he has worked on several other formats, his most famous being Emergency Room, which has toured internationally and has been shown at P.S. 1 Contemporary Art Center in New York City. The formats generally involve many participants and are designed to investigate social psychology (e.g., conflicts, collaboration).
His method is inspired by the TV program format: art institutions wanting to use an art format must purchase a license and agree to use the original title, architectural concept, and methods. As in TV, vast documentation is always created with video and photo material as central elements.
Emergency Room
Geoffroy devised the 'Emergency Room' concept to allow artists to respond to current events quickly. The exhibits are changed every day. 'Emergency Room' events have been held in Copenhagen, Berlin, New York, Athens, Hanoi, Johannesburg, Napoli and Paris (where over 150 artists took part).
Biennalist
Biennalist is another Art Format by Thierry Geoffroy / Colonel, concurrently commenting on active biennals and managed cultural events through artworks. Biennalist takes the thematics of the biennales and similar events like documenta, festivals and conferences seriously, questioning the established structures of the staged art events in order to contribute to the debate, which they wish to generate. Often the pertinence of the themes of the biennales is tested on location. Biennalist has been activated at the Istanbul Biennial 2007, Venice Biennale 1999, 2001, 2003, 2005, 2007, 2009, 2011, 2013 and 2015, Athens Biennale 2007 and 2011, Biennale of Sydney 2010, Sarema Biennale 1997, Rotterdam Biennale 1990, U-Turn Quadriennale 2008, Manifesta 2010 and Liverpool Biennial 2010.
Other Work
The "Penetration" format is an artist's act of placing an artwork within another artist's exhibition. The Penetration is a solution to avoid the lateness of bureaucratic art institutions, by circulating space between the actors – artist to artist. A penetration is not only meant as a shortcut, but also a beneficial collaboration. The format has been seen at the Athens Biennial Emergency Room, at the Istanbul Biennial, at the Venice Biennial in 2007 (by Biennalist), at the Venice Biennial in 2009 (penetrations at the Venezuelan Pavilion with Daniel Medina, at the Finnish Pavilion with Jussi Kivi and at the Belgian boat with Jacques Charlier, curated by Enrico Lunghi). The "Penetration" format was also activated at Manifesta 8 in Murcia. Here the format took place in a 'Penetration Room', combining Geoffroy's "penetration" art. The 2010 Biennale took the theme of "North Africa" and Geoffroy invited North African artists to intervene (or penetrate) the exhibition space.
Geoffroy's "Extracteur" format involves sending a person (character) to create a photographic collection of personal experience. It is designed to “retake the right to reread and reorganise the representation of the world" as a reaction to social media's collection of private information. He first used the format during the 2011 Venice Biennale.
The "Awareness Muscle" format's goal is to train the collective "muscle of awareness". It uses the act of physical training as a metaphor for consciousness and critical thinking training.
Geoffroy has also made several productions for Danish national television DR2. Among these the programs "Capitain" (1999), ”Immigranten” (2001), “Photographe“ (2002) and "Protest Underwear" (2005). The choice of media is frequently changing and is usually concerned with the contemporary. Newspapers, radio, fashion industry, telephones, internet domains, parties, music festivals, performance, myspace and facebook are among the elements of the artists crossmedia praxis.
Central to the philosophy of Thierry Geoffroy seems to be the concern that contemporary artists have an obligation to confront current themes (“emergencies”). This is especially evident in his Emergency Room and Awareness Muscle formats.
Parallel to the artists conceptual format art work, he has also worked with topics such as immigration, multiculturalism, colonialism, tourism, hypocrisy, and the role of the artist.