Khthon imagines a moment located in a new geological era, an era that comes after our own, marked by human activity. In this new era, an ancestral kingdom emanating from the depths of the Earth has reasserted its place: the mineral, the chthonian, the tellurian.
The mineral is at once the origin and the destiny of our bodies. These are made up of calcium, phosphorus, potassium, sulphur, sodium, iron, copper, zinc, selenium, manganese, cobalt, silicon. After a long process of fossilisation, they will return to the geological matrix from which they came.
Khthon represents the emergence of “geological life,” a hybrid active force that has gained the ascendant over the vegetable and the biological and that, over the long term, has taken on the features of life, reshuffling the cards of a frontier between the inert and the animate.
Khthon posits the hypothesis of a humanity that has been only a short chapter in a long geological history and that, having exploited Earth’s fossil resources, has brought on its own fossilisation.
Khthon evokes the chthonian divinities, the guardians of the depths of the Earth, those Gorgons that had the power to petrify bodies, in other words – literally – to mineralise them.
Yan Tomaszewski is a Franco-Polish artist who works at the intersection of sculpture, installation and cinema. His films have been shown at FID Marseille, at DocLisboa at the Rencontres Internationales Paris Berlin. He has had solo exhibitions at the Archaeological Musem in Krakow, the Musée de l’Air et de l’Espace in Le Bourget, and the Middelheim Museum in Antwerp. He has taken part in numerous group shows, notably at the Fondation Hippocrène, at the Centre Pompidou and at Manifesta 9. In 2019 he was nominated for the Prix Sciences Po pour l’art contemporain.
CursusExpositions individuelles (selection)
2019 Germs, Musée Archéologique, Cracovie (PL)
2018 Tchouri, Musée de l'Air et de l'Espace, Paris-Le Bourget
2016 The Boogeyman, Catapult, Antwerp
2015 Message from Charlotte, Centre for Contemporary Art Kronika, Bytom
2015 The Boogeyman, Middelheim Museum, Antwerp
2014 Szczuka's chest, Muzeum Sztuki, Lodz, Poland
2013 Museum of reproduction, Asymetria Gallery, Warsaw
2012 Embellissements, Primo Piano, Paris
Expositions de groupe (selection)
2019
Artience, Daejeon Culture & Arts Foundation, Daejeon (KR)
Panorama 21 – Les Revenants, Le Fresnoy Studio National des Arts Contemporains, Tourcoing (FR)
2018
Light, non-light, Chapter II, Seoul
Knaf, Municipal Gallery Arsenal, Poznan
Public Pool #5 -- Voisinages, Cité Internationale des Arts, Paris
imMobilized, Fondation Hippocrène, Paris
2016
Private Choice, Paris
Nowa Moderna, Quai Malaquais, Paris
2015
The second death of George Mallory, Karlin Studios, Prague
Worth remembering! A Tribute to Jerzy Lewczynski, Asymetria Gallery, Warsaw
Nouveau Festival, Centre Pompidou, Paris
2014
- GEN 2:7-18*, Karlin Studios, Prague
2013
L'Atelier des Testeurs, Chalet Society, Paris
Un espace, La Marbrerie, Montreuil
2012
The Deep of the Modern, Manifesta 9, Genk
E, I know it begins with E, North End Studios, Detroit
Mulhouse 012, biennale d'art contemporain, Mulhouse
Tranches de carrés sur tranches de cercles, Saline Royale d'Arc et Senans,
2011
56ème Salon de Montrouge, Montrouge
Pratiques de proximité, Maison des Arts de Malakoff, Malakoff
2010
Projection, La Fabrique des pinceaux, Cluj
Videoholica, Varna
Traverse vidéo, Les Abattoirs, Toulouse
2009
Failure/Success, Tactile Bosch Studios, Cardiff
2008
The Transphotographique's collection, Art Stations Foundation, Poznan
2007
There is no success like failure and failure, Photo Month, Cracow
Projection
2020 The Good Breast and the Bad Breast, MAC VAL, Vitry-sur-Seine (FR)
2019
The Good Breast and the Bad Breast, Doclisboa International Film Festival, compétition, section Green Years, Lisbonne, Portugal (PT) The Good Breast and the Bad Breast, FID Festival international de cinéma, Écrans Parallèles, Marseille (FR)
Performances
2018 Une avant-garde polonaise, Centre Pompidou, Paris (FR)
2015
Nouveau Festival, Centre Pompidou, Paris (PL)
Scripture, Centre for Contemporary Art Kronika, Bytom
2014 Szczuka’s chest, Muzeum Sztuki, Lodz (PL)
Formation
2018-2020 Le Fresnoy - Studio national des arts contemporains, Tourcoing
2008-2011 Ecole Nationale Supérieure des Beaux-Arts, Paris
2005-2011 Ecole Normale Supérieure, Lyon
2007 Royal College of Art, London
Prix et bourses
2019 nominé au prix Sciences Po pour l’Art Contemporain
2018 nominé au prix KNAF, Leszek Knaflewski Award for Young Artists
2016 Lauréat du programme Hors les Murs de l'Institut Français -- catégorie arts visuels
2014 bourse du Fond Visegrad
Residencies
2019 DAEJEON (KR) : 2 mois, Daejeon Culture & Arts Foundation
2016
los angeles : 3 mois, programme Hors les Murs, Institut Français
2015
cracovie: 1 mois, programme Place called space, Imago Mundi Foundation
anvers: 4 mois, programme De Sokkel, Air Antwerpen et Middelheim Museum
2014
prague: 3 mois, programme de résidences du Fond Visegrad, Centre for Contemporary Art Futura
Workshops (selection)
2018
C'est mon patrimoine, MAC VAL, Vitry-sur-Seine 2016
Les Portes du temps, MAC VAL, Vitry-sur-Seine
Le vif renard brun saute par-dessus le chien paresseux, dans le cadre de l'exposition Les Incessants, Villa du Parc, Annemasse
L'atelier du faussaire, Les fabriques d'Art Contemporain, MAC VAL, Vitry-sur-Seine
2012 Manifesta 9 Coffee Break, Genk
Press (selection)
