For its new exhibition, the Avant Galerie Vossen brings together some twenty artists around the theme of the Rectangle. With this exhibition, the gallery continues to forge links between traditional practices and digital forms. *Black Rectangle* brings together painting, sculpture, installation, and new technologies.

A legendary motif
In the Lascaux caves, beneath the deer and bison we’ve known since childhood, researcher Stanislas Dehaene uncovered something unexpected: a black rectangle beneath the painting of the deer. The first geometric shape drawn by humankind. A minimal yet decisive sign—the beginning of symbolic thought, according to the researcher; this ability to create symbols is what makes us human; we are symbolic beings. Several millennia later, the black rectangle is still there, more than ever. It has multiplied; it covers our phone screens and our digital interfaces. The black rectangle censors, protects, hides. It is the form of imposed silence as much as it is of minimalist art. It is the browser window and the redaction bar. And it covers the walls of the Avant Galerie Vossen.

The black rectangle—poetic, humorous, political, algorithmic…
In the exhibition, the black rectangle takes on a poetic form for painters and sculptors. It is a humorous form for Apolline Régent when she plays with the legacy of the painter Malevich. It is a political form when Enora Denis finds it in facial recognition patents, masking the faces that feed the algorithms. It is an algorithmic form when Olivain Porry programs an AI to lie to other AIs and other humans. It is a physical form, rooted in the street, when Aram Bartholl seals a USB drive into the wall on Rue Chapon. It is fabric and sound when Cécile Babiole weaves electrical cables as one would weave wool.

In collaboration with Galerie Placido, 41 rue Chapon, 75003 Paris

With:

Clarisse AÏN, Jean-Michel ALBEROLA, Cécile BABIOLE, Robbie BARRAT, Ronan BARROT, Aram BARTHOLL, Louise BELIN, Ross BLECKNER, Benoit de BRETTES, CÉSAR, Mattia CUTTINI, Judith DEGOULET, Enora DENIS, David GUEZ, Grégoire HESPEL, Denis LAGET, Takesada MATSUTANI, Albertine MEUNIER, Hélène MILAKIS, PIERRE EDOUARD, Piero PIZZI CANNELLA, Olivain PORRY, Michel POTAGE, Apolline RÉGENT, Park SEO-BO, James SIENA, u2p050, Bernar VENET