"Pierre n°2" 2008 / Fir tree
70 x 21 x 13,5 cm / 27 1/2 x 8 1/4 x 5 1/4 inches / Unique
Courtesy Galerie Emmanuel Perrotin, Miami&Paris, Veilhan/ ADAGP, Paris 2008
"Furtivo means “stealth” in Italian. Stealth is the name of a boat, which is the main element of the eponymous film directed by Xavier Veilhan. The exhibition Furtivo recalls the environment preceding the film, announcing the dreamlike journey from the earth to the sea, from the Fiat factory in Turin to the boat Stealth. The artist does not use electric light in the gallery: some rooms are lit with candles, others with daylight (...). A diminutive black human sculpture greets the spectators as they enter the space (...). A five-meter long shark springs up next, echoing a powerful collective imagery, mentally and formally (...). Like The Lion, it is a phantasm, a frightening and untamable creature, evoking the “force-lines” of the plastic dynamism theorized by the Futurist painter Umberto Boccioni: immediate perception of movement combined with the transformation of speed. The piece’s elegance brings to mind Brancusi’s marbled fish, its irony reminds us of Damien Hirst’s beast in formaldehyde, but it above all appears as the underwater alter ego of the boat Stealth. Veilhan also produces a new series of Litophanies, which were inspired by stills taken from the film, and are lit from behind by candles (...). Finally, a wooden wheel-shaped chandelier with candles hangs from the ceiling and is reminiscent of a scene of the film, where the main character sees in this object a replica of the modern helm of the boat. This hijacked piece is at the crossroads of a handcrafted transformation and a futurist construction of objects of mass production".
Extracts of the text "Furtivo, the rational and the relational"
"The Chandelier" 2008 / Beech tree,candles, metal, rope
/ Diameter 90 inches / Unique
Courtesy Galerie Emmanuel Perrotin, Miami&Paris, Veilhan/ ADAGP, Paris 2008
View of the exhibition "Furtivo" in 2008 at Galerie Emmanuel Perrotin Paris
Courtesy Galerie Emmanuel Perrotin, Miami&Paris, Veilhan/ ADAGP, Paris 2008
View of the exhibition "Furtivo" in 2008 at Galerie Emmanuel Perrotin Paris
Courtesy Galerie Emmanuel Perrotin, Miami&Paris, Veilhan/ ADAGP, Paris 2008
Courtesy Galerie Emmanuel Perrotin, Miami&Paris, Veilhan/ ADAGP, Paris 2008
Courtesy Galerie Emmanuel Perrotin, Miami&Paris, Veilhan/ ADAGP, Paris 2008