Etienne Chambaud

(Paris: Dilecta, 2022)

I translated the essays for the first monograph of the artist Etienne Chambaud on the occasion of the personal exhibition dedicated to him at LaM museum (Villeneuve d'Asq) from October 2022 to January 2023. 

Textes by Étienne Chambaud, Filipa Ramos, Tristan Garcia, Mihnea Mircan

Lâme, the title of the exhibition, links the museum’s name to “lame = blade”, an object to cut with, and “âme = soul”, the vital breath that provides impulsion. In English, the title takes on yet another double meaning, as it evokes both an impaired body and a lack of substance.
The book is presented as an interweaving of iconographic elements referring to a vast body of work, all accompanied by notes written by Etienne Chambaud. The book is supported by essays by Mihnea Mircan, Vincent Normand, Tristan Garcia and Filipa Ramos.

Co-published by LaM and Dilecta, this book is sponsored by the galleries Esther Schipper (Berlin) and Labor (Mexico).

About the book :
In the exhibition, the artist presents a set of works from the last ten years, drawings from his childhood, and new works, some of which have been created using items taken from scientific and cultural institutions in the city of Lille. Lâme is an exhibition of contradictions, metamorphosis and hybridisations, all of them determining processes in the artist’s work. He takes fragments, cuts them, folds them, brutalises them, transforms them and combines them to generate new forms ad gaps in which thought can develop.