Artwork # Zero

The idea behind ​​this major artwork, which took me years to complete, came to me in 1996.

At that moment, I took paper and a pencil to draw it. After it was conceived, I had one singular obsession : to create it !

I immediately began looking for materials to build this piece.
To start, I had to find the main component of my artwork : some « immatière ».
But what is « immatière », you may say ?

It's a bit like dark matter or antimatter in space, we do not see it, but we know it exists.
To allow you to better visualize, it's a bit like glass but much more transparent.

So I went to the four corners of the world, especially in South America and Asia, to explore all the potential mining sources. Because we obviously do not find immatière in the supermarket and even less, an immatière supplier in the phone book.

It would take me several years to find this mine ...

A friend who worked in the humanitarian field opened the doors of the Mogok mines in Burma for me. We extracted tons and tons of rock in order to collect a few hundred grams of immatière that I preciously conserved for the next step.

It was now necessary to find a holder for this immatière with which I intended to make a chalice, in the same spirit as the one that received the blood of Christ.
But mine was going to receive something completely different ...

I then went looking for this holder. I got the idea of using parts used for football cups or trophies, very basic objects.

For this, I was inspired by what my roommate Marcel did, who had ventured into the wonderful idea of ​​« Ready-Made », but who, in my opinion, did not go far enough.
So I decided to invent and promote « Ready-Remade » !

But what is « Ready-Remade » you may ask ?
It's almost the same thing, except that I feel the object is not attractive enough to use.
So, in addition to diverting this manufactured object from its original function, I will need to beautify it using any means possible.

For this piece, I decided to gild it with pure 24 karat GOLD.

At the beginning of 2001, I found a trophy manufacturer who offered me a leftover and I was able to gild it.

Then I used the immatière I had previously collected.
I needed to use a high-temperature furnace to melt it, as is done with glass. I went to a glass factory, where I blew and carved a perfect chalice, super transparent.

This was destined to receive all the spirit of contemporary art since 1960.

As for making an essential oil, I have peeled and extracted under pressure every artwork of contemporary art known since that time. Whether it was Marcel, Ben, Buren, Nam June Paik, Koons, anything, any artist, any artwork, I collected the essential essence !

This I then gently poured into the precious chalice.
Each year I continue to add the spirit of contemporary art of new artworks that have been released since that day in 2001.
But for some time now, because of Jeff Koons, it is beginning to overflow.

The spirit of contemporary art respects the laws of physics : It can be in solid, liquid or gaseous states. At ambient atmospheric pressure and at normal temperature, it is in the GASEOUS state !

Last detail : you must be extremely intelligent and open-minded to see this chalice.

Addendum :

I named this piece « Artwork # Zero » as a reference to the prequels of cinematographic artworks such as « Star Wars », « Cube Zero », « Hannibal Lecter », etc.
This artwork goes back to the beginning of the story that explains how I got here !

And it's also my very first Ready-Remade !