PROFILES

The years pass and in Cédric Teisseire’s work there is one constant: canvases covered in vertical lines of colour applied using a syringe. “I repeat the same movement to create them but the result is a different artwork every time,” comments the artist. These abstract paintings relating to Concrete Art and the Supports/Surfaces movement are something of a studio logbook since 1993, created with the paints he happened to have to hand. But as he points out: “This basic technique enables me to create something of a different order since the paint takes time to dry.” Following his monochrome pieces of layered paint covering the canvas in random creases, ridges and pools, over the last two years Teisseire has been working with an industrial medium. “When I saw the series of rear car lights photographed by the policeman Arnold Odermatt, it gave me a real aesthetic shock,” he says, so using the transformative action of heat he partially melts car lights to create pink, red, yellow and white pieces he calls Avatars, anthropomorphic shapes that suggest distorted human body parts. In addition to his personal practice of art, Cédric Teisseire also works to promote emerging local artists. When we profiled him in 2010, the La Station artists’ collective that he cofounded and still leads had only just moved into Nice’s old municipal abattoirs. Since then Teisseire has also been appointed artistic director of the neighbouring Chantier 109 inaugurated in summer 2016, which focuses on dance, theatre and digital arts. He explains: “At the old abattoirs nearly 7000m² of the planned 18,000m² have been renovated. The idea is to bring artists together in one place in order to spark synergies, so they feed off each other’s different fields to create for the public.”

Par Tanja Stojanov

Photo Jean-Michel Sordello