Michel Huelin
dal 23/1/2009 al 5/3/2009
Segnalato da
23/1/2009
Michel Huelin
Fabian & Claude Walter Galerie, Zurich
Phytotron. The artist presents scenes from a seemingly dreamy and seductive world aimed at stimulating a debate on principles concerning the perception of nature and gene technology.
Fabian & Claude Walter Gallery start off the exhibition programme of the New Year with a show
of recent works by Michel Huelin (*1962, Saignelégier CH). He will present scenes from a
seemingly dreamy and seductive world aimed at stimulating a debate on principles.
A fictitious ecosystem is portrayed in a series of Lambda prints, in which close-ups of
wonderfully rampant accumulations of flowers, leaves and stems in bold and vibrant colours
float weightlessly in undefined surroundings. Grids, transparent tubes or vessels, small wafts of
mist and expressive splashes of digitalized paint intercept these elements. The viewer plunges
into a virtual world, a jungle of hybrid objects, half familiar, half alien. The question arises as to
the reality or unreality of the viewers' own presence.
Phytotron, the title of the show, terms an experimental facility enabling the cultivation of plants
under different climatic conditions. On this note, Huelin digitally creates, generates and
calculates a "virtual biotope, in which the elements complement and nurture each other." The
artist realises his works with virtual models developed on the computer by means of 3D
modelling data. In his own words, he deals "with the concept of a transformed, alienated nature,
with manipulation and mutation, with the relation between the species." An extensive pool of
digital data has accrued over the years, which according to the artist encompasses "the
elements of a very complex virtual world." "To a certain extent I simulate a possible evolution of
living and inert matter," Huelin explains, "by changing a number of numerical parameters that
determine the reactions between the virtual elements and their fictive environment."
Since 2000 Michel Huelin has been engaging in the debate surrounding biotechnology and
genetic engineering, without becoming overtly political. He confronts scientific reason and logic
with the intuition and emotions of an informed layman. In addition, Huelin concerns himself with
an ambiguous respectively equivocal reference to nature, with phenomena linked to perception
and nature, while investigating the borderland between the real and the virtual. "My hybrid
images," Huelin explains, "mix references to real nature with fictive organisms and elements
taken from painting. Scanned brush strokes that have been integrated into the virtual model
cause uncertainty as to what is real and what is virtual."
Michel Huelin does not consider himself a political artist, and yet his questions and doubts
regarding gene technology define his virtual biotope and its aesthetics: "The images I create do
not lay any claim to reality, this world is not organic but numeric; the fictive chaos alone
mushrooms and is quantifiable. I prefer substantiating my doubts by making use of contradictory
concepts, mutations, by addressing a sense of trepidation, but also by visualising sensuality and
humour. I could say that my pictures are of a deceptive serenity."
Biography: Michel Huelin lives and works in Geneva. After completing his baccalaureate in
natural science, he graduated from the Ecole Supérieure d'Art Visuel de Genève in 1988. In
2001 an artist's residence of three months at the Département de radiologie, hôpitaux
universitaires in Geneva enabled him to study medical imagery and its cognitive evaluation.
Michel Huelin regularly has one person and group shows in museums and commercial galleries
in Europe and the USA. The MOCA in Cleveland recently dedicated an exhibition to his videos.
opening jan 24, 2009
Fabian & Claude Walter Galerie
Limmatstrasse 270 - Zurich
Tue – Fri 12.00 – 5.30h and by appointment
Free admission