Xavier Veilhan

Instrument n°4, 2018

The works of Xavier Veilhan – sculpture, sound installation, painting, photography, performance, film – deal with corporeality and the surrounding world of objects as the results of virtual and industrial conditioning. The sculpture Instrument n° 4 belongs to the series Big Instruments. The first three objects of this series were realized during the 57th Venice Biennale as part of his installation Studio Venezia for the French Pavilion. Veilhan had built a fully functional recording studio and invited more than 200 musicians to work there during the seven months of the exhibition. The sculptures of the Big Instruments are reminiscent of forms of historical instruments, of the architectural décor of Art Deco as well as of designs of Russian constructivism. They have a recognizable handcrafted dimension, as light materials are used and a digital design phase has been omitted in the work process. Instrument n °4, with a height of 2.55 m, breaks out of the contexts of human dimensioning and function. With its two dominant sides – a bright artificial blue surprises on the back with the purism of the wood color – the sculpture appears as a picture, object and architecture in one.