Delphine Coindet, born in 1969 in Albertville, France, currently lives and works in Lausanne, Switzerland. She graduated from the École des Beaux-Arts de Nantes (1992) and later participated in the Institut des Hautes Études en Arts Plastiques program (1992-1993). Since the 1990s, she has developed a sculptural language through constructions made from a variety of materials and techniques, with a particular focus on assemblage. The heterogeneity of her artistic world embraces a wide range of techniques, from cabinetry to metallurgy, as well as all forms of art, from architecture and design to the performing arts. In this spirit, one could say that her work seeks to inscribe itself within the chaotic wake of the revolutionary aesthetic avant-gardes of the 20th century—among other ever-fertile sources of inspiration.
Her recent solo exhibitions include:
- Faire défaire refaire, Galerie Laurent Godin, Paris (2024);
- Autofriction, Kunsthaus Biel, Centre d’art Bienne (2023);
- Lisièrement, Lemme Art Contemporain, Sion, Switzerland (2021);
- Quoi fabrique qui ?, Galerie Laurent Godin, Paris (2021);
- Ventile, Le Portique, Le Havre (2018);
- Un choix de sculpture, Collégiale Saint-Martin, Angers (2017);
- Modes & Usages de l’art, Le Crédac, Centre d’art contemporain d’Ivry (2015);
- Périmètre étendu, Galerie Art & Essai, Université Rennes (2012).
Text by Martin Kiefer for the exhibition VÉNUS NOIRE
We have known at least since Robert Filliou that La Joconde is "in the staircase," as indicated by a small sign hanging from a broom sticking out of a bucket (1969). But today, one wonders where this dancer has gone, having left her voluminous tutu behind on an office chair. One also wonders how this island bird came to perch here, on such a pragmatic and unpoetic stand, and we think, as in the fable, that if its song matches its feathers, then it truly is the Phoenix of all the hosts of this wood. To live, to die, and to be reborn to live again—that is the unique power of the mythical bird, and perhaps also that of artists who, with a single gesture, sometimes manage to bring back a moment, a life.
It was in 2017 that Delphine Coindet, a French artist known for her sculptures and her mastery of assemblage, created this work, soberly yet effectively titled Tutu, which, within the context of this exhibition, fully reveals its narrative potential. By orchestrating the meeting of two seemingly antithetical worlds—the world of performance and the corporate world, the show and the office, fantasy and seriousness—Delphine Coindet enriches the tribute to Josephine Baker with this new avatar. Like a Cinderella in an open space, she transforms in the middle of a meeting into a beautiful bloom of tulle and color.