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Jean-Luc Bichaud combines the inert and the living, plant life and animal life; he hybridizes species and dreams the union of opposites.

His microcosms, objects and installations are set up to be viewed in situations that are determined at the outset, that frequently evolve and that are seldom long-term.

These artificial, unnatural, incongruous encounters humorously call into question the hierarchy of living species, the designation and status of the objects on display.

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traduction Elaine Briggs

eternalnetwork.frEternal 

Arrangement

Arrangements are installations and also wall pieces or pieces set on plinths involving one or more living elements from different registers, whether the aquatic, terrestrial or aerial worlds.
Visual scenarios place living things in artificial, deviant yet livable conditions in order to spectacularize them.

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A1 méthacrylate, pvc, aquarium aerator, cage, water  and goldfisch

A3 A4 A5 méthacrylate, pvc, aquarium aerator, soil, cactus, water and goldfisch

A6 méthacrylate, pvc, aquarium aerator, potted trees, water and goldfisch
...
 

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Greffes sur végétaux

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1993 - La greffe de l'Orangé
Colored pencil, potted orange tree, raffia and grafting putty

1995 - Pastel sur fusain
Pastels, potted spindle tree, raffia and grafting putty
(The French term fusain designates both a spindle tree and the charred wood used for drawing)

1996 - 2018 - Fusains sur fusain
Potted spindle tee, charcoal, raffia and grafting putty.

1999 - 2018 - Jardinage

jardinage 1 1999

Potted lucky bamboo, steel, raffia and grafting putty. jardinage 2 1999

Potted spinach tree (Chaya), steel, raffia and grafting putty. 1999

jardinage 1 2018

Steel , potted dracaena, raffia and grafting putty. 

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VJQKJ

L'arche des Indésirables

A boat, housing insect nest boxes, is ready to leave.

It is a refuge for stowaways and a microcosm favourable to unloved species. When the Flood came, Noah had nothing planned for them.

 

2012 - Festival des bords de Vire- Usine Utopik

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Boat, various materials, dimensions variable

Joutes

Small cacti set into inflatable armbands float at random, according to whatever chance situation arises.

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2005 - Dedans/Dehors -

Château La Caze- Lot/Garonne

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swimmingpool, small cacti, inflatable armbands, water, sinker.

Coming out 2003

sans titre 2003

Les complémentaires 2004

Coloured pencil leads or graphite replace the bars in a cage unit used for breeding canaries.

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2003 and 2004

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Coloured pencil leads or graphite, wood

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Les jeux sont faits

A football pitch seems to be a potential motif for a French formal garden. When conditions are right, two teams of snails move around, rivalling over the design of various plant motifs.

 

2018 - Forum des arts, Talence (FR)

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Wood, trestles, copper, lawn, white painting, snails, tillandsia

spectre

Spectre is a small pavilion, a folly (1) in the park. It is a place to meditate on the passing of time. From day to day, a rainbow spectrum of colours – just like the spectre of death – appears in an intensely hued blaze of glory.

(1) architectural meaning of the word.

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2004 - Les Environnementales

parc de Tecomah - Jouy-en-Josas (FR)

2005 - Exposition Forget me not
Maison du Danemark - Paris (FR)

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glass, metal, fresh cut white flowers, water, ink

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Corridor

The structure of Corridor is for summer use. It is set up between two open windows allowing insects to go straight through the main room in the mill, and is lit day and night to attract the insects. It is a response to the mill race beneath the mill, reiterating its route on the floor above.

 

2015 - Ephémères 2015- le moulin du Guillou- Les Rives de l'Art-Dordogne (FR)

 

aluminium- fabric-néons-steel -time

Apporter de l'eau

The installation features a kind of dryer suspended above the mill race to the paper factory.  Yet the principle behind it is a secret to no one: nothing hanging here will ever dry out.
A drip irrigation system keeps the sponges permanently wet. When completely sodden, they drain tunefully.

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2009 - Moulin de la Rouzique, Couze-St-Front - Les Rives de l'Art - Dordogne (FR)

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artificial sponges, drip watering, steel, water pump

approximately 2,50 x 6,60mx 14,00m

Concert d’oiseaux

Concert d’oiseaux spans the three bay windows in the Music Room. The imagery derives from a "Concert of Birds" by Jan van Kessel titled The Bird Tree.
The artwork is a direct allusion to the salon's primary use, and functions in relation to the decorative bestiary in the rest of the château. It also refers to the outlines of the birds of prey, placed preventively on the bay windows.

 

2017 - salon de musique, château de Champs sur Marne (FR)

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stikers, variable dimensions

Carcasses

Carcasses, the bare frames of Louis XV armchairs, useless but classy, raised on an assorted collection of stilts, take advantage of their privileged, variant, elevated viewpoint to overlook the garden's ornamental broderie.
The twists on the front legs grafted with salix tortuosa echo the style of the time.

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2017 - château de Champs sur Marne (FR)

 

mixed media, variable dimensions

Hauts reliefs

Cloudlike forms drain over plateau landscapes suspended at varying heights. The runoff converges into a lake, a sea, an ocean. As a poetic illustration for the water cycle, the installation echoes in a minor key the vast complexity of the hydraulic system feeding the fountains in the park.

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2005 - La Maréchalerie - Versailles (FR)

2006 - Galerie Alain le Gaillard-Paris (FR)

2007 - Galerie « La maison de Marijke Schreurs » - Bruxelles - (B)

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variable dimensions

vert printemps

Greffes

Cabinet de verdure

Tips of coloured crayons are grafted on to briar rose branches forming a sort of wallpaper pattern – a way of getting closer to nature.

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1996 - Galerie Lucien Durand-Paris (FR)

2001 - Centre d’Art Contemporain, Istres (FR)

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wild rose, color pencil, raffia and grafting putty,

variable dimensions

Mangrove

Chlorophytum plants clone naturally. The stolons produced by each mother-plant take root in a network of tubing supplied with water and fertiliser. Each new plant joining the network thereby contributes to the exponential growth of the whole.

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2001 - art center-Juvisy/Orge (FR)

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potted chlorophytum, plastic curtain, plastic tube , water, fertilizer, grafting putty, wooden structure

265 x 358 x372 cm

Jardin de propreté

A broderie motif taken from a highly decorative design of architect-engraver Jacques Androuet du Cerceau is freely interpreted in a dialogue with the pre-existing pattern of box-trees on the forecourt.

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2003 - Cité universitaire internationale de Paris (FR)

2006 - Mairie de Gouarec- côtes d’Armor- (FR)

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door mat

vert printemps

Greffes

Au fil de l'eau

Fishing floats hang above this wash tank with impluvium.
According to the point of view, the cloud of colour either blurs a view of the passageways or forms orderly sinusoidal curves evocative of a moving surface

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2010 - Musée Despiau-Wlérick - Mont de Marsan (FR)

 

nylon thread, fishing floats, metal
variable dimensions

Souffler n’est pas jouer
Bird calls grafted on to various instruments and utensils form an unlikely collection that the labels – deleted, crossed out – render even more fictitious.


2017 - Musée de la chasse et de la nature, Paris (FR)

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mixed media

La suée du parc

Every fifteen minutes, a miracle occurs: the beech tree sweats, and the water condensing beneath its foliage gradually fills a circle of buckets placed on the ground. Like the fountain trees in the Canaries, the beech briefly becomes a sacred "garoé" tree.

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2019 - Jumièges Abbey (FR)

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misting system, aluminium structure, plastic buckets, water, copper beech

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