Benoît Billotterue de la Navigation, 051201 Geneva - Ch

+41 (0)79 564 82 95benoit.billotte@gmail.comwww.benoitbillotte.fr

B e n o î t B i l l o t t ebenoit.billotte@gmail.comwww.benoitbillotte.com

Born in 1983 Lives and works in Geneva since 2008

SOLO EXHIBITIONS

2015 - Insulae, ar t space Selecta, Nyon, Ch. - Les Traversées, V i l la du parc, ar t contemporary center, Annemasse, Fr.2014 - Passeggiata, Hal le Nord, ar t contemporary space, Geneva, Ch. - Disappear ing c i ty, Cour Carrée gal lery, Par is , Fr. - Concrete Block, Studio Sandra Recio gal lery, Geneva, Ch. - Mirabi l ia , Laborato i re d’express ion é last ique, Metz, Fr.2013 - Mirabi l ia urb is Romae, Mi lkshake Agency, Geneva, Ch. 2011 - Borrow my studio, Daan Noppen’s studio, Amsetrdam, Nl . - Cherche la rose, contemporary art center Parc St. Léger, Pougues- les-eaux, Fr. 2010 - V ivar ium, Espace Stargazer, Geneva, Ch. 2009 - Tra i t de ta i l le , f rench cul tura l center, T imisoara, Ro. 2008 - Var iables, Ate l ier, Montrouge, Fr. - OMAC – organisat ion mondia le de l ’ar t contemporain, Espace Kugler, Geneva, Ch. 2007 - Crashtest , Espace LX5, Luxembourg, Lx.

GROUP EXHIBITIONS SELECTION

2015 - Bourses Fonds Berthoud, L iss ignol-Cheval ier et Gal land, Centre d’art Contemporain, Geneva, Ch. - Stand D12, Volta, Basel Art Fair, Ch. - Now&After’15, 5th art video festival, Moscou, Ru. - Formes cr ista l l ines, col laborat ion between Centre Pompidou-Metz and Fondat ion d’entrepr ise Hermès, Musée La Grand Place, Saint-Louis, Fr. - Insta l lat ions, Studio Sandra Recio gal lery, Geneva, Ch. - L’E loge de l ’heure, Mudac, Lausanne, Ch. - Ta lweg 2, Pétro les édi t ion, for the exhib i t ion Stat ion FRAC PACA, Marsei l le , Fr. 2014 - A l iqu id Mirar i , wi th Lena Amuat & Zoë Meyer and Géra ld ine Singy; Curator: Mar ie- Eve Knoer le, P iano Nobi le, Geneva, Ch. 2013 - Spazi Apert i , roumanian academy, Rome, I t . - Une brève h isto i re des l ignes, Centre Pompidou-Metz, Fr.2012 - Bourses Fonds Berthoud, L iss ignol-Cheval ier et Gal land, Centre d’art Contemporain, Geneva, Ch. - Tota l i té Vécue 2, Col lect ion de mult ip les d’Ergastu le, POCTB, Or léans, Fr. - The Mater ia l feat , Glass-Fabr ik and Cirva de Marsei l le , Espace Labo, Geneva, Ch. - Overgamed, Col lect i f NotOnlyKidsPlay, V i l la Dutoi t , Geneva, Ch. 2011 - Tota l i tée Vécue, Col lect ion de Mult ip les Ergastu le, l ’Adagio, Thionv i l le , Fr. - E lephant ias is, contemporary art center Standard Deluxe, Lausanne, Ch. - Concours fédéra l d’art , Swiss Art Awards, Basel , Ch. - Pr ix d’Art Robert Schuman, Luxembourg, Lx. - Geste serpent ine et autres prophét ies, 49 NORD 6 EST - Frac Lorra ine, Metz,Fr. 2010 - Moving Wor lds, Roundabout I I - Tr iennale Jeune créat ion, Luxembourg, Lx. - Bourses Kiefer Habl i tze l , Swiss Art Awards, Basel , Ch. - Drawing t ime / Le temps du dessin, Musée des Beaux Arts de Nancy, Fr. - Acte 3, Thônes, les Arav is, Fr. 2009 - Pr ix d’Art Robert Schuman, Metz, Fr. 2008 - Vers ion Bêta, Centre pour l ’ Image Contemporaine, Geneva, Ch. - Sombres Desseins / Dark Designs, la Maison d’Ai l leurs, Yverdon-Les-Bains, Ch. 2007 - Shar ing common playground, Esch-Belva l , Lx. - Biennale i t inérante d’art contemporain, Jeune créat ion européenne, Montrouge, Fr. - Source Fro ide, Kunstraum Wacheturm, Zur ich, Ch. - Real i ty Str ikes Back, Universa l Cube, Le ipz ig, D. - 52em Salon d’art contemporain de Montrouge, Montrouge, Fr.

RESIDENCIES

2016 - Pro Helvet ia Shanghai Swiss Arts Counci l , China.2013 - Inst i tut Suisse de Rome, I ta ly.2011 -CIRVA, Marsei l le wi th Glass-Fabr ik, France.2010 - Contemporary art center Parc Saint Léger, France.2008 - Studio res idenci , v i l le de Montrouge, France.

EDUCATION

2008 postgrade, Haute Ecole d’Art et de Design, HEAD Geneva, Ch. 2006 DNSEP opt ion art , f ine art school Metz métropole, Fr. 2005 t ra in ing «Transistor 05», Praha, Cz. 2004 DNAP, f ine art school Metz métropole, Fr.

GRANTS & PUBLIC COLLECTIONS

- Fonds Cantonal d’art Contemporain (FCAC) and Fonds Munic ipal d’art Contempor (FCAC) , Geneva. - MUDAC, Lausanne. - Pr ix Ta lents contemporains 2014, Fondat ion François Schneider, Wattwi l ler, France. - Pr ix Kiefer Habl i tze l , Swiss Art Awards, Basel .

PUBLICATIONS

- Talweg 2, Pétroles édition, 2014 - Une brève h isto i re des l ignes, Centre Pompidou-Metz, 2013 - Issue 26, «Derat isme. « , 2012 - Pr ix d’art Kunstpre is Robert Schuman 2011, exhib i t ion cata logue, Lx. - Geste serpent ine et autres prophét ies, exhib i t ion cata logue, FRAC Lorra ine, 2011 - Swiss Art Awards 2010, Off ice fédéra l de la cul ture Suisse. - Moving Wor lds, exhib i t ion cata logue, Tr iennale Jeune Créat ion, Lx. - Drawing t ime - Le temps du dessin, exhib i t ion cata logue, Nancy c i ty and FRAC Lorra ine, 2010 - Art & V ie en Arav is, exhib i t ion cata logue, associat ion Acte 3, 2010 - Pr ix d’art Kunstpre is Robert Schuman 2009, exhib i t ion cata logue, Metz, 2009 - Carte Blanche 2009, exhib i t ion cata logue, Centre cul ture l f rançais de T imisoara

LANGUAGES

- fluent English (read, written, spoken) - good level Italian (read, spoken) - good level Spanish (read, spoken)

A r t i s t i c r e s e a r c h :

The practice which I develop is mainly characte-rized by drawing, yet without limiting itself to this medium. I may say it is quite the contrary as my work can easily get away from paper to become an engraving, a cut out piece, an intervention on a wall or on a floor and sometimes even an object. Without a definite medium, I like exploring andconfronting myself to new materials or tech-niques. When necessary I also to collaborate with craftsmen or other professionals to break open my research and experiments.

Alike a land-surveyor, I gather information and documents that surround us and use them as re-sources for my work. Both scientific and technical encrypted data are transcribed, translated visual-ly, thus removing them from their original use. By handling maps, flows and statistics, I suggest a formal and conceptual version of these objectivedata which our society has produced to give it-self markers or benchmarks. Removed from their context, they are reduced to their pure abstract form becoming graphic and poetic signs open to interpretation and new forms of reading.

My aim is to bring to light various forms of soft pro-paganda that surround us.The field of research that i explore in my practice is wide and can touch many domains such as sciences and its obsoles-cence, cartography and its topographical survey,urbanistic utopias and the revelation of architec-tural forms.

D r a w i n g s :

D r a w i n g s :

Since Antiquity, several stories and mytholo-gies mention the existence of a hollow Earth, concentric and possibly liveable in its centre.

During the 18th and 19th centuries some will even assure you that the Earth holds an inside sun wit-hin its heart and that the poles are the ways to access this unexplored world.

The Hollow Earth is an in situ installation repre-senting this theory in the shape of a map. Cut out adhesive tapes are stuck directly on the bay win-dow of La Villa du Parc art centre thus enabling the visitor to see it from the outside as well as the inside.

Terre creuse (The Hollow Earth) , vitrophanie, variable dimensions, production of La Villa du Parc contemporary art center octobre 2015, exhibition Les Traversées, contemporary art center La Villa du Parc, Annemasse, Fr.

The title is inspired by the term “insula” which refers to both the island (the habitat in Roman Antiquity) and the part of the brain that controls memory.

At the intersection of these two meanings, this series features an installation nearby of a map room. On these maps islands such as Fiji, Easter or Greenland have a particular style as they were drawn using the now obsolete technique of une-ven hatches.

Theses maps, carried out non scientifically, are not exploitable nowadays for obvious reasons. In-deed, they are closer to a visual impression than an accurate reading of the territory. However, these drawings were still very useful for tracking around the island, which accentuates the mea-ning of using survival blankets.

Insulae, 5 silkscreen prints on survival blanket, 160 x 210 cm, production of La Villa du Parc contemporary art centre october 2015, photographs © Aurélien Mole exhibition Insulae, art space Selecta, Nyon, Ch. exhibition Les Traversées, contemporary art center La Villa du Parc, Annemasse, Fr.

Inspired by invisible worlds and underground ci-ties, this series of drawings revisits the idea of coalmines. We say that the ground’s landscape is drawn by what lies in its basement, however it is rarely considered. Invisible to the naked eye, we often tend to forget that many tunnel networks were dug for mining and still are.

As genuine parallel worlds, they cover distances and areas comparable to those of larger cities. Mapping was gradually mastered to give an ac-count of many of this ensemble and thus showing that we are able to navigate there.

Each drawing is built from a mining networks’ cross-sectional plan and floor plan playing on different scale levels. The horizon is the only ele-ment to locate us. Each subterranean landscape helps to escape and get lost away in our imagi-nation.

The title was inspired by the eponym novel by Jules Verne.

Les Indes noires, 5 drawings with Indian ink, charcoal and spray on arche paper 100 x 65 cm, june 2015 exhibition Les Traversées, contemporary art center La Villa du Parc, Annemasse, Fr. exhibition Volta 11 stand Sandra Recio, Basel, Ch.

Concrete Block is a selection of urbanistic maps of the beginning of the 20th century. The work presents modernist cities (Washington, Canber-ra), industrial cities (Crawley, Houten), harbour cities (Boston) or historic cities (Berlin, Athens) which went through an important expansion in the early twentieth century with the development of concrete.

These cities can take geometrical or very organic curvy shapes: as a grid pattern, as a concentri-cally radiating plan or a bipartisan plan. The main map of these cities now becomes a real concrete landscape which, when reduced to its graphic as-pect, offers a reading that is no longer informative but more open to interpretation and visual rea-ding slides.

Concrete Block, 10 drawings with concrete, on paper or on the wall, variable dimensions, april 2014 exhibition Concrete Block, Studio Sandra Recio, Geneva, Ch. exhibition aliquid mirari, Piano Nobile, Geneva, Ch.

photo credit Mauve Serra

photo credit Carole Parodi

photo credit Carole Parodi

Mirabilia urbis Romae is a reinterpretation of ancient and modern maps of Roma. It brings to-gether the main ancient roads, Hadrian’s Wall or railway and military axes on the same level or even a set of overlapping circle-square-triangle shapes that highlight possible geometric arran-gements of the city.

The main lines link together ancient, religious and public monuments of Roma, often called Mirabi-lia. This map evokes Roma at different times and marks the particular importance of its building’s layout in the urban grid. The ground installation covers an area of about 64m2 thus allowing visi-tors to physically apprehend this point of view onthe Eternal City.

This drawing was the base for the performance Sitting Lines by Anne Rochat and Werner Rohner (video documentation available).

Mirabilia urbis Romae, colored adhesive, 8 m of circumference, in-situ installation, june 2013, photo credit Ciprian Buzila exhibition Suivre les lignes, Laboratoire d’expression élastique, Metz, Fr. exhibition Spazi Aperti, académie roumaine, Roma, It.

Inspired by some so called old nautical charts of the fourteenth century similarlynamed Portulan, this mural intervention redraws a world map where only maritimezones are indicated.

By a simplification process, I revisit these mapping and graphic conventions in or-der to give a drawing inviting adrift and elsewhere.

The absence of scale and legend as well as any indication text makes us looses ourlandmarks and opens to other possible rea-dings such as astronomy, networking orspinning. It also allows a more random rea-ding of this kind of representation, anotherkind of mental projection.

Portulan, pyrography on leather, 100 x 80 cm March 2013 exhibition Autonomia, 11 bienal de artes mediales, invited by Frac Lorraine, Santiago del Chile, Cl.

Wind drift, sand and glue, 450 x 1300 cm, in-situ installation, january 2013,

request and production Centre Pompidou-Metz for Une brêve histoire des lignes exhibition curator Hélène Guenin, responsable du Pôle Programmation, Centre Pompidou-Metz and Christian Briend, curator au Centre Pompidou, Musée national d’art moderne, Cabinet d’art graphique credit photo: Centre Pompidou-Metz, janvier 2013 © Shigeru Ban Architects Europe et Jean de Gastines Architectes, avec Philip Gumuchdjian Architects pour la conception du projet lauréat du concours / Metz Métropole / Centre Pompidou-Metz / Photos Rémi Villaggi exhibition Une brève histoire des lignes, Centre Pompidou-Metz, Fr.

Wind Drift offers a formal and conceptual appro-priation of objective data, flows and statistics, produced by society to provide references.

Isolated from their context, they are now sim-plified and can therefore be considered as pure abstraction or become graphic and poetic signs open to interpretations. A topography of the wind – a clearly unseizable element which is now pa-radoxically recomposed – and its influence on ocean currents.

Inspired by actual maps, Wind Drift shows a pos-sible break of the wind suspended in its race. It results in a world map where swirling arrows co-vers only water surfaces.

The sand, an element often moved by the wind and the sea, is used to materialise the key ele-ments of the breeze, the uncertainty and the im-permanence of a movement.

Sandcastle is a series of sand drawings on the wall, showing the frontage of skyscrapers (mini-mum size 60 x 350 cm) such as Guangzhou TV Tower, Chicago Spire, Shanghai Tower. Their sil-houette is in perpetual expansion as an expres-sion of power and superiority.

The frame and the alternation of glass surfaces constitute “curtain walls” with strong graphic lines which accentuate the rise of the building. An as-cending dynamic, as well as optical and physical, does not cease stretching construction. They look like idols with feet of clay as in many contempora-ry megalopolises.

With the sand, it is said that everything is falling apart and that the erosion of rocks like those of skyscrapers, and ultimately our living spaces, is immutable. The sand grain is what remains, the ruins of a world that is no longer, as these buil-dings sooner or later return to a state where only dust and imagery remain.

Sandcastles, wall drawings wiht sand, 60 X 350 cm each one, in-situ installation, september 2012, photo credit Sonia Chanel exhibition Installations, Studio Sandra Recio, Geneva, Ch. exhibition Monument, Musée des Beaux Arts - Calais and Frac Basse Normandie - Caen, Fr. exhibition Bourses Fonds Berthoud, Lissignol-Chevalier et Galland, c.a.c., Geneva, Ch.

A blackboard and a chalk drawing: a set of roughly concentric lines draws on the walla piece of territory that stretches and contracts to infinity. This is a view of Yel-lowstone Park in 1871 where the coordi-nates, bearings and scale have disappeared to only leave place to graphic shapes.

Visually, the forms seem to offer themsel-ves to the viewer while giving itself away only partially as if an underlying motion animated them. The very precise cartogra-phic data are here deprived of their autho-ritarian function to lose us better.

This park – one of the older national parks in the world – is the centre of an importantgeothermal activity and is situated on a cal-dera (a huge volcano). Apparently calm, itcontinues in fact to grow and to be constant-ly changing, like this geographical repre-sentation playing with light kinetic move-ments.

Yellow Stone, chalk on blackboard painting, 250 x 340 cm November 2011 exhibition Borrow my studio, Daan Noppen’s studio, Amsetrdam, Nl .

A blackboard and chalk drawing: the coordinates and landmarks have disappeared; space opens infinite and free; a sine wave crosses the plane. Escaped from a mathematical graph, the curve gives an impression of knowledge and authority. It embodies a truth. But which one?

Sun line ... Since the Earth, it is by measuring the number of dark spots visible on the surface of the solar star that one realizes its activity. This varies according to a periodicity of 11.2 years. The cy-cles are repeated, similar but not identical.

The figures collected since 1761 become a frieze that provides a quirky and enigmatic portrait of the sun. Two hundred and fifty years of activity (twenty-four cycles) are summarized in a few centimeters. Nothing on the scale of the star.

Sunline, blackboard painting and chalk drawing, 120 x 1014 cm, in-situ installation, january 2011, production 49 Nord 6 Est – Frac Lorraine, Metz photo credit : 49 Nord 6 Est - Frac Lorraine, janvier 2011 © Rémi Villaggi exhibition Geste serpentine et autres prophéties, Frac Lorraine, Metz, Fr.

O b j e c t s a n d s c u l p t u r e s :

O b j e c t s a n d s c u l p t u r e s :

Combining both a study on the funeral urns shaped as a house and mausoleums for men of History, the project Thaumasia or The Oblivion dynamic points out the importance of memory in funeral rites and the recurrence of commemora-tiveconstructions such as the monument throughout the centuries.

Architecture is a field where one can express power and memory. We can talk about speaking architecture, i.e. buildings which, by their shape, give more or less directly what they are or what they are made for. The mausoleum is a perfect example. On different scale, much smaller, the urns – also called urn hut – takes this commemo-rative function again.

These two types of «eternal homes» are distin-guished by their proportions and materials, but are joined by the forms they use and simply by their function.

Near to a study of architectural shapes of memo-ry, those constructions magnify a being after his death. This project revisits with lightness these monuments in the shape of model, near to the decorative item, even to ceramic doll’s house.

Thaumasia ou The Oblivion dynamic, , 10 céramics, production with financial support of DRAC Lorraine and Société des Arts de Genève 2015 - 2016, exhibition Bourses Fonds Berthoud, Lissignol-Chevalier et Galland, c.a.c., Genève, Ch.

Sélénographie is an installation which plays on the study of the Moon’s surface and relief by using a lunar viewpoint indicator (object usually installed in situation which, to be used, should project us in a uncertain future).

Reliefs drawn outside are those of the Valle de la Luna in the Andes , named so for its re-semblances with the lunar surface. The central drawing mixes prints showing craters with the surface of the Moon and the Earth.

On the wall, names refer to lunar sites (named so for centuries) showing how much the Moon, for the foreign and extra-terrestrial surface that it is, is always described, studied, named, according to terrestrial concerns.

This installation, which inextricably blends lunar and terrestrial geographies, reminds us that the Moon was always men’s projection space for in literature and science.

Sélénographie , viewpoint indicator engraved on aluminium and dropped initial with iron fillings, variable dimensions, production of La Villa du Parc contemporary art center october 2015, photo credit Aurélien Mole exhibition Les Traversées, contemporary art center La Villa du Parc, Annemasse, Fr.

The project carried out for Urgent Paradise’s art space and the display invented by collectif P4, exploits the report of the scale model and that of the module. Resulting from the plans by architect David Georges Emmerich, paper foldings regain the shape of the exhibition cardboard dome he had invented and presented, in particular at thePacking Salon in Paris in 1968. On these cupola is also applied a texture made of dust and ce-ment inspired by theories of camouflage named Dazzle.

With the meeting of these two inventions which at the same time seek to show and dissimulate, Dazzle vs Emmerich is a flexible structure which can be repeated and invest the exhibition space to infinity.

Dazzle vs Emmerich, folded and pasted paper, paint with cement and dust, in-situ installation, for an exhibition at Urgent Paradise with collectif P4 april 2015, photo credit Michael Lianza, exhibition La cimaise et la fraction, invited by collectif P4, Urgent Paradise, Lausanne, Ch.

Passeggiata, or Stroll in English, started during a visit to Ostia Antica, Italy. Pieces of columns, capitals and entablature are stored there in a la-pidarium.

In this organisation, the shapes that emerge be-come objects; constructions close to scale mo-dels and – why not? – sculptures close to mini-malism. Each of these elements can be part of a whole that it is entirely up to us to invent.

To make that combination possible, Passeggiata offers a PVC moulding series of ruin fragments. Like beach buckets, these matrices are available to be used by each and everyone in a sandbox made available for this purpose.

The gesture is pointless and absurd. Why do you duplicate ancient architectures and furthermore with sand? The extreme fragility of the material underlines an inscription in time, here ephemeral, impossible to keep. The ruins are the elements of a History that occurred but is now long gone. Here, their possible replica invites us more to aprojection, a story writing itself.

Passeggiata, sandbox and pvc, variable dimensions,, in-situ installation, Act-Art Price 2014 september 2014 exhibition Passeggiata à Halle Nord - contemporary art space Geneva.

Patterns paternes collects various plans focused mainly on Roman Catholic churches. Some are closer to a radiating or polygonal map, but all are inscribed in the Host’s circle.

The plan, drawn by the absence of paste, pre-sents the foundations of a shaped volume as if it was the beginning of a 3D elevation. The cut gives the Host an aspect close to lace.

The geometric patterns are transformed into ea-sily recognisable and reassuring forms.

Patterns paternes, 12 cutting Hosts, diameter 13 cm each one, june 2013 exhibition Disappearing city, gallery Cour Carrée, Paris, Fr. exhibition Mirabilia, Laboratoire d’expression élastique, Metz, Fr.

Scénographie architecturale pour narration ur-baine (Architectural scenography for urban nar-ration) presents a different set of models inspired by monuments said to be minor because of their architectural forms (simple forms often close to the geometric volume).

Most of these monuments, inspired by mauso-leums or funerary and votive monuments, are found in the Antiquity, but also the Renaissance or the fascist period. This set is a repertoire of forms shown as the characters of an urban histo-ry, an architectural theatre.

Each of these architectures, that can be described as “speaking architecture” becomes here a fictio-nal character. A theatre stage can be imagined for each one of these urban protagonists.

Scénographie architecturale pour narration urbaine, cutting cardboard, 3d print, 30 x 25 x 35 cm each one june - august 2013, photo credit Aurélien Mole exhibition Les Traversées, contemporary art center La Villa du Parc, Annemasse, Fr. exhibition Somnia forma urbis, Milkshake Agency, Genva, Ch. public collection Fond cantonal d’art contemporain, Geneva.

This multiple is a remake of the Pioneer plate sent into space in 1972. An anachronistic way to revisits the scientific information engraved on this artefact.

Some of these elements were already ques-tioned, our solar system in particular. The scien-tific data can indeed evolve, be completed, be modified or erroneous in time. In this spirit of Science’s obsolescence, Plaque Pioneer go back over theories or scientific representation which are no longer in use.

They seem totally improper and absurd today but have been widely spread and considered to be exact for the previous centuries (the theory of a hollow Earth, alchemical signs, skeleton’s repre-sentation in theatrical positions ....).

Plaque Pioneer (version beta), lead plate moulded, 23 X 17 cm, 12 ex. Septembre 2011 exhibition Les Traversées, contemporary art center La Villa du Parc, Annemasse, Fr. exhibition Monument, Musée des Beaux Arts - Calais et Frac Basse Normandie - Caen, Fr. exhibition Totalité Vécue 2, collection de multiples d’Ergastule, POCTB, Orléans, Fr.

Dessin de la Plaque Pioneer (version beta).

Halfway between mineral element (prismatic rock) and architectural form, Crystal House in the mountains is a series of glass modules of diffe-rent heights which exploit assembling modes and transparency games. A form is multiplied and ar-ranged in a dynamic structure that can be close to a street map, a mountain range or a quartzcolumn.

The regular geometry with sharp angles is ba-lanced by a rounded tip each time slightly diffe-rent similarly to an organic shape. Essentially ins-pired by Bruno Taut’ architectural research and the poet Paul Scheerbart with the glass chain, this work resembles a model, a mock-up of what is to be oscillating between a natural combination and the human projection.

Crystal House in the mountains, series of different height glass, height 30 cm to 5 cm, width 6 cm, in collaboration with Glass-Fabrik and CIRVA, Mudac collection Lausanne. august 2011, photo credit Arnaud Conne exhibition Formes cristallines, collaboration entre le Centre Pompidou-Metz et la Fondation d’entreprise Hermès, Musée La Grand Place, Saint-Louis, Fr. exhibition Le Verre Vivant, collection d’Art verrier contemporain, Mudac, Lausanne, Ch. collection Mudac Lausanne.

Further to a reading of New York Délire by Rem Koolaas, my interest got set on «architec-ture sculptures». I specifically selected different constructions from the twentieth and twenty-first centuries with a special geometry that can be as-sociated to the revolutionary architecture – avant-garde or almost fantastic.

Close to the sculpture, each piece is cut-out in a wooden (timber) square of the same size (11cm on top and 7.5 cm of width). The buildings are all evened out to the same scale. This allows an upgrade of each architecture for a more comfor-table comparison of their overall shape.

Buildings become simple geometric forms that evoke some minimal sculptures.

Architectone, cutted timber square, height 11cm, width 7.5 cm, mai 2011 exhibition Installations, Studio Sandra Recio, Geneva, Ch. exhibition Elephantiasis, espace d’art contemporain Standard Deluxe, Lausanne, Ch. exhibition Concours fédéral d’art 2011, Swiss Art Awards, Basel, Ch. exhibition Prix d’Art Robert Schuman 2011, Luxembourg city, Lx.

The silk square is an archetypal clothing acces-sory. It allows us to make a dress match while un-derlining a personality and being entirely part of an outfit in numerous occupations (stewardess, agent of welcome/reception, lawyer, financial ad-visor). Its history is also related to the first wor-ld trades and the Silk Road connecting Asia and Europe since the second century BC.

With Framework for trade, the silk scarf is revi-sited on a pattern the level. It becomes the sup-port of planispheres where takes shape the main graphic elements in relation to the international exchanges. A series of arrows, points or lines in vivid colours appears to their surface.

We can distinguish there and then, at a wor-ld level, migratory flows, merchandise flows or still massive financial trades centres. Element of splendour and source of geo-economic informa-tion, Framework for trade can worn in the same way it is being read.

Framework for trade, print on silk square, 90 x 90 cm June 2010 exhibition Prix d’Art Robert Schuman 2011, Luxembourg city, Lx. exhibition Bourses Kiefer Hablitzel 2010, Swiss Art Awards, Basel, Ch.

P r i n t s a n d v i d e o :

P r i n t s a n d v i d e o :

Planisphère shows the construction of grid maps of the world in the thirteenth to the eighteenth century. By a graphic simplification of the map’s structure, the base map loses all possible reading or meaning. Only a symmetrical drawing similar to an optical game seems to persist. Between geometrical effects and the composition of a de-corative pattern, the map is an invitation to pro-ject ourselves towards an undefined elsewhere.

Portulan revisits the cartographic conventions of the fourteenth century and invites to drifting by graphic simplification. Here the map only shows what outskirts the land, meaning the maritime ter-ritory. This one was considered as an unknown, an area to be explored for ages, also full of sur-prises and fantasies in the same way of what hadbeen the twentieth century space exploration.

Talweg 02_La Périphérie, Petrole Edition, paper edition, 21 x 28,5 cm folded, 500 ex. http://www.petrole-editions.com/editions/talweg02 vectorial drawing for wall installation december 2014, exhibition Talweg 2, Pétroles édition, for the exhibition Station FRAC PACA, Marseille, Fr.

Coming from the philosophic thought, organi-cism maintains that reality is better understood as an organic whole. It is common to assimilate elements such as human society to an organism, humans to these cells, cities to growing biological structures.

From this starting point the animation Organicism replays, on Petri dish scale, the growth of the city like the farming of microorganisms. The heart of the city is being developed around its first Road, then extends progressively as would a growing cell. The streets, the arteries multiply and grow at the rate of an organic development.

The four cylindrical cultures allow a comparison between the development of cities and shape. We can observe both Shenzen, Astana, Vienna and Rome, each one of them with its specific ur-ban and architectural changes.

Organicisme, video animation Flash, 3 min édition 2014 à 5 ex. + 1 a. ex. http://www.benoitbillotte.com/travaux/2014/Organicisme_BBillotte.swf april - may 2014, exhibition Disappearing city, gallery Cour Carrée, Paris, Fr. exhibition Concrete Block, Studio Sandra Recio, Geneva, Ch.

still screen animation:

Somnia forma urbis’ starting point is the publica-tion Il Campo Marzio di Roma by Piranesi (1762) in which he redraws the Ancient maps of Roma. This resulting city only remains a possible projec-tion of what was the Eternal Rome.

Each building, after being isolated and being re-drawn, is organized in a free way with the other architectural elements, like a puzzle, in order to constitute the background of the animation. This city, which looks like a constellation or a space station, sets itself up and is expends endlessly on the plan. Its modular and orthogonal shapes canremind us of the Adriana’s Villa in Tivoli.

The animation offers a wandering in this dream city. Just like a scan, an aculus (or oculis) brushes the light showing the various buildings without re-vealing them completely. Close to frustration, this partial urbanistic fare opens on a contemplationwhere each and everyone can project its own dreamt city.

The sound is a mix between space sounds and solar winds. This sonor atmosphere gives an other reminder of the constellation.

Somnia forma urbis, video animation Flash with audio, 6 min silk screen print, 65 x 50 cm (12 ex + 3 ex for artist) May 2013 http://www.benoitbillotte.com//travaux/2013/SomniaFormaUrbis_BBillotte.swf exhibition Les Traversées, contemporary art center La Villa du Parc, Annemasse, Fr. exhibition Now&After’15, 5th video art festival, Moscou, Ru. exhibition Disappearing city, gallery Cour Carrée, Paris, Fr. exhibition Mirabilia, Laboratoire d’expression élastique, Metz, Fr exhibition Mirabilia urbis Romae, gallery, Screen Space Melbourne, Au. exhibition aliquid mirari, Piano Nobile, Geneva, Ch.

still screen animation:

Apollo / Futuro is a photomontage showing the three astronauts from Apollo 1 praying before their lunar module mission. The latter is here re-placed by the Futuro house designed by Matti Suuronen and known for its circular shapes close to a flying saucer.

Halfway between a tribute and the editing of science fiction, this silkscreen printing brings to-gether two separate worlds with common simi-larities or a metonymy of forms. The perception of the photography is being distorted, and plays with benchmarks as well as reading codes.

An unlikely meeting between space exploration, architectural revolution and religious fervour is possible to perceive and decipher.

Apollo / Futuro, silk screen print, 57.5 X 41 cm , (12 ex + 3 ex for artist) 2012 - 2013 exhibition Les Traversées, contemporary art center La Villa du Parc, Annemasse, Fr. exhibition Disappearing city, gallery Cour Carrée, Paris, Fr. exhibition Monument, Musée des Beaux Arts - Calais et Frac Basse Normandie - Caen, Fr.

Cadre enchanteur, série de 19 impressions numériques couleurs, format carte postale, A6 décembre 2008.

A sum of 10-euros was converted in 53 currencies on a web site where the exchange transaction is free of charge.

Through computer tools and their immediate na-ture, one could complete a world tour in less than two hours without moving from one’s seat. His vir-tual journey in a globalized economic system puts the emphasis on the speed of financial flows andtheir immateriality.

Close to a poetry movement, this board offers both a graphic aesthetic form and a symbolical significance.

Un tour du monde pour 0.01672 euros , color print on paper, A0 paper, October 2008 exhibition Prix d’Art Robert Schuman 2009, Metz, Fr.

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