The first Bucharest exhibition of Lyon-based artist Théo Massoulier is scheduled to open at the end of February at Gaep, which announced it is representing the artist.

The artist is known for the assemblages gathering mineral elements, plants, and artefacts referencing lab biological cultures or small prebiotic matrixes. Recently, he started working on a series of paintings with novel, magnetically-activated bas-reliefs.

Massoulier’s interest in processes of coevolution, hybridization, metamorphosis, and entanglement is manifested through an artistic practice informed by biology, genetic engineering, and philosophy, as well as the aesthetics of biopunk, simulation games, and Neo-Geo art, according to a presentation of his work from the gallery. His sculptures, installations and bas-relief paintings destabilize demarcations between the organic and the synthetic, human and non-human, man-made and machine-made. They ask incisive questions about the systemic tensions revealed by the crises of the Anthropocene; our relentless technological drive, including the merging of technology and biology via gene editing tools; the utopias and dystopias arising from the prospect of full automation; and the manifold contradictions of consumption and desire, such as the glorification of certain objects in the face of increasing dematerialization.

“I am interested in the systemic tensions revealed by the crises of the Anthropocene and in their corresponding aesthetics: the principle of metamorphosis and emergence, fluidification of structures, technologization of life, in light of the concept of entropy and the resource-waste dialectic,” the artist explains.

In addition to Massoulier, Gaep represents 13 artists, namely Răzvan Anton, Pavel Brăila, Felipe Cohen, Vlatka Horvat, Théo Massoulier, Sebastian Moldovan, Damir Očko, Cătălin Pîslaru, Mihai Plătică, Raluca Popa, Marilena Preda Sânc, Mircea Stănescu, and Ignacio Uriarte, and has long-term collaborations with Radu Cioca and Tania Mouraud. In its more than nine years of activity, Gaep, established by cultural manager Andrei Breahnă and architect Raluca Șoaita, held 42 gallery exhibitions and seven online ones and attended 27 art fairs.

(Photo: Théo Massoulier, Anthropic Combinations of Entropic Elements, Lyon Biennale 2019 by Blaise Adilon, courtesy of the artist and Gaep)

simona@romania-insider.com