Galleries in Paris

8 B.P.M (experiments with time) presents a set of works, video, photographs, installation, thought and realized during the residency of the artist at the semaphore of Créac’h on the island of Ouessant *. The waves come crashing on the rocks at an average rate of 8 times per minute, giving the title to the exhibition). The semaphore (from the Greek sêma: signal and phorós: carrier) was built on the cliffs of the island’s Atlantic coastline, a signaling station for the French Navy to communicate by signal or radio with ships sailing within sight. Simon Faithfull stayed there for a whole month, facing the setting sun but also the weather fronts coming from the Atlantic.

As usual, the artist-traveler and scientist-experimental tried to melt into the island, as much in the rocky mass of the granite, as in the liquid element. Hypnotized by the beams of the lighthouse during the nights, the one that the artist humorously names his « silent discotheque » became the main actor of the film shown in the exhibition, giving a second role to the artist’s silhouette. Intrigued by these rocky masses that constitute the island, Simon Faithfull wanted to immerse himself among them. These hairy rocks as he calls them, constitute in a photographed part of his residence, the testimony of the love brought by the artist to this rocky island, open to the rough weather.

Born in 1966 in England, Simon Faithfull studied at Central Saint Martins College of Art and Design in London and at the University of Reading. Influenced by his travels and by Land Art, Simon Faithfull has developed a multidisciplinary practice mixing performance, video, photography, digital drawing, installation and writing

* This residency initiated in 2008 by the artist Marcel Dinahet and organized by the association Finis terrae ** – (www.finis-terrae.fr) welcomes each year critics or artists to spend a whole month at the semaphore of Créac’h.

** Finis terrae is a film by the director Jean-Epstein made in 1928 on the island of Ouessant.