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Barthélémy Garcia

Studio grant holder in Stockholm 11 October 2021 – 24 April 2020

Barthélémy Garcia (1985) is a French-born artist from Pertuis who has been based in the Swedish city of Gothenburg since 2011. Garcia addresses life through — often mundane — materials and objects. During his time at Valand Academy he developed a mild obsession with a radiator, subsequently expanding to AC’s, cell towers, artificial grass, roofs and supermarkets. His work is intellectually inspired, carried out intuitively, and, more often than not, includes misplaced academic quotes.

Portrait of Barthélémy Garcia, Photo: Christoffer Rutström

The predominant decor and subject of Barthélémy Garcia’s work is the city, illustrated by his ongoing project Fasadens Kulisser, The Facades’ Coulisses.
In his artistic practice, Garcia departs from the idea that the material itself carries significance. He believes that objects possess an independent existence extending beyond the meaning we humans attribute to them. The starting point for Fasadens Kulisser is an exploration of the material, with the camera aimed at the city.

Urban landscapes have a longer lifespan than us, humans, and form the matrix for the objects produced in our society. Our lives are closely connected with things. Decisions about our living environment are made in spaces that are generally not considered ‘political’ — the material realm being such a space.
His work invites us to focus our attention on various aspects of our physical milieu — aspects that we are rarely conscious of, despite the impact they have on our lives.

Barthélémy Garcia studied his BFA and MFA in Photography at Valand Academy after having studied Art history and Archeology in Aix-en-Provence. His work has been shown at Rödasten Konsthall, in Gothenburg; at Galleri Format, in Malmö; and most recently at FG2, in Gothenburg. In 2020, he received the Swedish Arts Grants Committee’s Assistant Grant with Klara Källström and Thobias Fäldt.

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