Culture Now: Jean-Luc Moulène in conversation with Briony Fer

Join visual artist Jean-Luc Moulène in conversation with art historian Briony Fer for a lunchtime talk at the ICA.

Since the early 1980’s, the works of Jean-Luc Moulène have consistently confronted standardised ways of seeing and interpretation, whilst simultaneously scrutinising notions of authorship and autonomy. Primarily working within photography, Moulène questions conventions of the production and circulation of the photographic image. By examining the way in which developments within industry, media and commerce can redefine both natural and cultural phenomena, he attempts to diminish boundaries, and the perceived values, between the heterogeneous worlds of fine arts and media. In addition to his large-format photographs, Moulène has developed a parallel body of three-dimensional “objects”– titled Opus – concerned with an exploration of manufactured, found, industrial and organic materials.

Jean-Luc Moulène has participated in Documenta X (1997), Sao Paulo Biennial (2002), Venice Biennial (2003), Taipei Biennial (2004) and more recently in the First International Biennial of the Image, Luang Prabang, Laos (2007) and the Sharjah Biennial (2010). With his works appearing in multiple shows internationally, Moulène has had numerous solo exhibitions dedicated to him by institutions such as: Centre d’Art Contemporain de Genève (2003), Center for Contemporary Art, Kitakyushu (2004), Jeu de Paume and Musée du Louvre, Paris (2005), Thomas Dane Gallery, London (2006), Culturgest, Lisbon and Galerie Greta Meert, Brussels (2007), and Carré d’art-Musée d’art contemporain, Nîmes (2009). One of his more recent shows, and perhaps most prominent, was a yearlong survey entitled Jean-Luc Moulène: Opus + One, held at the Dia Foundation, New York. His work is currently showing at Modern Art Oxford until 25 November 2012.

Briony Fer is an art historian and writer who has published extensively on 20th century art and contemporary artists such as Gabrial Orozco, Tacita Dean, Ed Ruscha, James Castle and Rachel Whiteread. Her two key publications, On Abstract Art (2000) and The Infinite Line: Re-making Art After Modernism (2004), offer reinterpretations of abstract art and art of the late 1950’s and 1960’s respectively. She has also contributed to the publication for the Eva Hesse retrospective at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art in 2002. Briony Fer is Professor of History of Art at University College London and is currently writing a book and co-curating an exhibition of Eva Hesse’s studiowork.