Against Nature

Ceramics, a test of fire

Against Nature is an exhibition inhabited by insolent, hybrid shapes made of clay and enamel, such grotesque creatures compose a luxuriant, original, mysterious, troubling, or even hallucinatory world.
Nature is artifice, and artifice becomes nature in order to decategorize scales and values, as well as to reverse commonplaces regarding sculpture and the ceramic tradition. The works gathered concern ceramics less as folklore than as modeling and alchemy, technique, and magic. Water, earth, and fire are the essential, unrivaled components of these new worlds: « What we call against nature is in fact against custom. » (Montaigne)

Exhibition artists

Caroline Achaintre, Salvatore Arancio, Sylvie Auvray, Julie Béna, Jessica Boubetra, Gisèle Buthod-Garçon, Marianne Castelly, Cyril Chartier-Poyet, Johan Creten, Roberto Cuoghi, Michel Gouéry, Takuro Kuwata, Claire Lindner, Simon Manoha, Nitsa Meletopoulos, Marlène Mocquet, Sandrine Pagny, Aneta Regel, Brian Rochefort, Sterling Ruby, Elsa Sahal, Mathilde Sauce, Katrina Schneider, Elmar Trenkwalder, Tamara Van San, Marion Verboom, Anne Verdier, Vertigo, Nick Weddell, Anne Wenzel

Curators

Under the artistic direction of Numa Hambursin, general director
Curator : Vincent Honoré, director of exhibitions and Caroline Chabrand, curator, assisted by Deniz Yoruc

Exhibition designer : Mr. & Mr. 

MO.CO. Montpellier Contemporain receives financial support from the Regional Directorate of Cultural Affairs Occitanie, Montpellier Méditerranée Métropole and the City of Montpellier.

Catalogue

The exhibition Against Nature comes along with a richly illustrated catalogue published for the occasion in French and English by Silvana Editoriale, designed by Pauline Desombre. It includes an essay by Numa Hambursin, as well as an interview between artists and Vincent Honoré.

Documents