Les_passions_des_poussieres_2016_05330RUG_2_NET.jpgJC Ruggirello is an artist whose work begins with experiments on materials. He observes them, manipulates them, and invents techniques that make forms appear. Objects and images thus take on a new meaning, and reveal a unique sensory world. These works embrace various media. They include a video, drawings of abstract shapes which emerge over the course of the experience, perforated ceramics with bronze wire going through them, geometric shapes made from acacia branches. These works interact despite their different textures. They “become friendly”, in the artist’s own words. With this body of work, JC Ruggirello builds both a world and its own origin. A particular interest in classicism can be noted in several of these pieces, such as the branches of acacia bearing prominent thorns, whose combination of purity and violence conjures up certain figures of ancient painting. In the four-screen video installation milk is seen flowing on smooth bare legs evoking those of a statue. The viewpoint emphasizes an opposition between the verticality of the body and the instability of the white liquid flowing and spreading across the floor, where the foot rests. The artist is a sculptor of objects, spaces, sounds and images. He discovers, assembles, and reveals new dimensions in sculpture through line and movement, deftly unsettling all horizons of expectations. Born in 1959 in Tunis, JC Ruggirello lives and works in Paris. After studying at the École Nationale des Beaux-Arts de Marseille and attending the Hochschule für Bildende Kunst in Hamburg in 1980, JC Ruggirello started developing a body of work centred on video, sound installation and sculpture. From the beginning of his career, JC Ruggirello has exhibited widely in France as well as abroad (Swiss Institute, New York; Centre d’Art Contemporain, Neufchatel, Switzerland; Musée des Beaux-Arts, Dijon; FRAC Aquitaine, Bordeaux; Le creux de l’Enfer, Thiers; Musée de Nantes). In 2000 the FRAC Marseille as well as the Centre d’Art Contemporain de Neufchâtel hosted solo shows of his work. The video Fade was selected in the Cinema XXI section of the Rome Film Festival, Italy, in 2013, and then screened at the Fondation d’entreprise Ricard in 2015. JC Ruggirello’s works are part of major public and private collections such as the FRAC Bourgogne, the FRAC Aquitaine, the FNAC, the Musée de Rennes, the Fonds communal de Kruishoutem, Belgium, the FRAC PACA and the Musée des Beaux-Arts de Nantes.