Romain Grateau
Grand tourisme à injection , 2021
Reinforced concrete bookcase: Portland cement, sand, mineral fillers, steel, oxides and pigments, encaustic, c. 300 x 215 x 35 cm
An in situ work that will store the collection of books and documents of Bétonsalon, this bookcase by Romain Grateau is a knowing pun on the art centre’s name, a literalized vision of the form that un salon en béton [a concrete living-room] might take. A self-supporting structure, the bookcase extends and appropriates the functional architecture of the space through its modulation of horizontal lines and support modules. Combining tapered and squat columns with slightly skewed modules whose forms are at once rough and delicate, the different processes used to create this unit are clearly visible in the finished piece, offering a multiplicity of possible variations upon a material that is usually synonymous with standardized industrial production. Grateau plays with numerous densities, colourings, finishes and embedded elements, challenging our perception and our ability to separate rubble from art object. By combining careful touches of ornamentation with the heavy-duty techniques of construction, he blends genres and registers from masonry to self-build and from Rocaille to brutalism. The title of the work, drawn from the world of automobiles, refers to a technology that allows vehicles to travel long distances at high speeds. Grateau’s bookcase invokes this mixture of poetry, precision, power and mechanics, whilst subverting a form of masculinity anchored in bodily exertion and physical feats.
Mathilde Belouali-Dejean
Romain Grateau, born in 1991 in Ancenis (department 44 - France), lives and works in the Paris suburbs.
He graduated with a DNAP (National Diploma in Visual Art) from the Ecole des Beaux-Arts in Angers in 2012 and obtained a DNSEP (Higher National Diploma in Visual Expression) from the Ecole des Beaux-Arts in Lyon in 2014. He then earned a Master’s in Visual Arts from the Head, Geneva, in 2016.
Romain Grateau develops a sculptural practice primarily guided by the sensuality of the materials and self-taught skills and popular, archaic crafts techniques. In parallel he works on text and poetry.
Since 2019, he has been a member of Pauline Perplexe, a workshop and exhibition space managed by artists, located in Arcueil (department 94 - France). He participates in numerous group projects, particularly focusing on curation.
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