DAVIDE BERTOCCHI
Born in Modena (Italy) in 1969, Davide Bertocchi has lived and worked in Paris for 20 years.
He trained at the Accademia di Belle Arti in Bologna under Alberto Garutti, at DAMS (the Art, Music and Performance department of the University of Bologna), Italy, and at HKU in Utrecht, the Netherlands.
After his studies and a trip of several months to the United States, and alongside his first exhibitions, he worked at the Galleria Massimo De Carlo in Milan from 1996 to 1999. This experience brought him into direct contact with many artists: John Armleder, Maurizio Cattelan, Carsten Höller, Massimo Bartolini, Paola Pivi, Rudolf Stingel, Matt Mullican, Rainer Ganahl, Olivier Mosset, etc.
It was on Maurizio Cattelan’s advice that, in 1999, he came to France to take part in the International Post-Graduate programme at the Beaux-Arts de Nantes, directed by Robert Fleck, Stéphanie Moisdon and Philippe Lepeut. After this experience, he settled in Paris.
In 2000, he was chosen as one of 10 Italian artists for the studio programme at MoMA PS1 in New York. He then went on to a residency at the Villa Arson in Nice, followed by the Pavillon of the Palais de Tokyo in Paris.
Davide Bertocchi uses images drawn from music and science and deliberately manipulates them by imposing unusual and intimate perspectives. His work ranges from video to sculpture and sound installations, and deals mainly with pseudo-scientific phenomena, such as the dissipation of energy and the movement of information through its “support mechanisms” – CDs, DVDs, records and/or magnetic tapes – and the orbital movements of planets and galaxies: that useless rotating, revolving movement and its existential and enigmatic impact on everyday life.
As part of the "Art et Mondes du travail" (Art and Worlds of Work) scheme, Davide Bertocchi developed a body of works specific to this experience. One of them, FACE A (EAC + AF), creates a synergy between the two residency hosts: the company, Azur Fragrances, on the one hand, and the art centre, the Espace de l'Art Concret, on the other. It takes a form dear to the artist: a music compilation whose tracks are chosen by others – here, each track was personally chosen by a member of the two teams, creating a relational component through the senses.
The title of the exhibition, Head Space, refers directly to the world of the partner company, perfumery. The term designates a process used first to extract the scent of flowers and rare plants, then to analyse it in order to reconstitute it.
The exhibition also presents a series of works – plaster tablets – inspired by “chromatographies”, that is, diagrams of the composition of raw materials at molecular level. This chemical process particularly interested the artist, who sees it as a way of making the invisible visible.
HEAD SPACE
Residency presentation from 26 March to 12 June 2022
opening Saturday 26 March at 11am
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Art & Monde du travail partner company:
AZUR FRAGRANCES
Azur Fragrances is an independent fragrance creation company founded in 1978 by five figures from what was then the largest perfumery company. The company employs more than 50 people in France across 2 sites: one in Paris and the other, our head office and production site, in Mouans-Sartoux. Abroad, it has sales offices in Düsseldorf and New York.
The company’s location is symbolic of our identity.
Our roots in the Pays de Grasse, the cradle of perfumery, reflect our desire to share and promote the heritage and know-how of perfumery, and our presence in Mouans-Sartoux, in particular in the PAC de l’Argile business park, reflects our concern for the environment.
Being inspired by the past does not stop us from looking resolutely to the future, and Azur Fragrances remains an agile company. This allows us to adapt to changes in our profession and to our clients’ expectations by inventing original solutions that set us apart from the main market leaders, while preserving the values of quality, ethics, professional rigour and respect for the environment that united Azur’s founders.
