Fabrice Gigy

Born in 1965 in Geneva, Switzerland. Lives and works in Geneva. Fabrice Gygi is one of the most important Swiss artists of his generation. Coming from the ultra-radical movement of Geneva squats, both his life and work are pervaded by a general rejection of the social order. He became known through performances in which he explores his body’s limits. Trained in engraving by the Geneva center for contemporary engraving and then at the école des Beaux-Arts, he began a major production of engravings and linocuts. From the 90s, gradually evolving from a discourse linked to the intimate sphere to a discourse involving society as a whole, he developed an ensemble of installations and sculptures carrying in them a potential of constraint and control over individuals. Within a minimalist formal vocabulary borrowed to urban infrastructure, as well as common and nomadic objects, he distorts from their primary functions, thus manifesting an ambiguity as a source of tension. He leads us to the thought of civil obedience and raises questions about our Western ideal of freedom. From the early 2010s, Fabrice Gygi initiates a rupture in his work by abandoning the creation of installations. Though the production of jewelry, then of sculptures and bas-reliefs with geometrical elementary forms, he focuses on the search for abstract and pure lines. At the same time, he began to work on large format watercolors. With a perfectly geometric composition, these watercolors on paper offer a limited chromatic range and once again reveal a tension between the material and the control and rigor of its use. In 2009, he was invited to represent Switzerland at the 53 rd International Art Biennial in Venice. Fabrice Gygi’s works were acquired by numerous collections including the MAMCO, Geneva; Mudac, Lausanne; Migros Museum, Zurich; M KHA, Antwerp; Magasin 3, Stockholm; Musée National d’Art Moderne, Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris; FRAC Ile de France — Le Plateau, Paris; FRAC Normandie — Rouen and the Centre national des arts plastiques.