Benoît Maire, born in 1978 at Pessac, lives and works in Paris. Former resident of the Palais de Tokyo and student at Villa Arson, Benoît Maire studied art and philosophy, making them encounter in his practice by giving shape to theorical concepts. His works often refers to history, art history, philosophy, psychoanalysis or even mathematics and mythology.
He won with Isabelle Cornaro the Fondation d'entreprise Ricard prize in 2010. Among his last soloshows to be noticed : David Roberts Foundation (London, 2013), Fondazione Giuliani (Rome, 2013), la Verrière ? Fondation Hermes (Brussels, 2014). His films has been shown at Centre Pompidou (Paris, 2014), Cinémathèque de Vancouver (2013) and Tate Modern (London, 2010).

Benoît Maire
Born in 1978 in Pessac
Lives and works in Paris


EDUCATION
2005-2006
Pavillon, experimental artistic research and educational unit, Palais de Tokyo, Paris

2003
DNSEP Villa Arson, Nice

2002
DEA (master) philosophy, Paris 1, Panthéon-Sorbonne


SOLO SHOWS

2018

Thebes, CAPC Musée d'art contemporain de Bordeaux, Bordeaux (upcoming)

2017

Disaster, Croy Nielsen, Vienna

2016
Premier cercueil, Palette Terre, Paris
Castled, Galerie José Garcia, Mérida, Yucatán
George Slays the Dragon, Bielefelder Kunstverein, Bielefeld
Castling the Queen, Meessen de Clercq, Brussels

2015
Nuages et déchets, Galerie Thomas Bernard - Cortex Athletico, Paris - exhibition views HERE
Sticker Beings, Kiria Koula, San Francisco

2014
FIAC, Galerie Thomas Bernard - Cortex Athletico, Paris - exhibition views HERE
beings, Hollybush Gardens, London
LETTER, Western Front, Vancouver
Letre, La verrière Fondation Hermes, Brussels

2013
Spiaggia di menzogne (Lying Beach), Fondazione Guiliani, Rome
Weapon, David Roberts Art Fondation, London
Film studies, Blau Projects, São Paulo
Ohne Warum, Croy Nielsen, Berlin
Hollybush Gardens, London
Le fruit est défendu, Galerie Thomas Bernard - Cortex Athletico, Paris - exhibition views HERE

2012
du classicisme (with Alex Cecchetti), Galerie Thomas Bernard - Cortex Athletico, Bordeaux - exhibition views HERE

2011
ArtBrussels : Soon the metal between us will turn into gold, solo presentation, Galerie Thomas Bernard - Cortex Athletico, Brussels - exhibition views HERE
History of Geometry, Halle Für Kunst, Luneburg
History of Geometry, Walden Affairs, Den Haag
The Object of Criticism, De Vleeshal, Middelburg
Bientôt le métal entre nous se changera en or, Kunsthalle, Mulhouse

2010
L'espace nu, Frac Aquitaine, Bordeaux
Histoire de la géométrie, Rosascape, Paris
ArtBasel Statement, Le concept de Cordélia, Galerie Thomas Bernard - Cortex Athletico, Basel - exhibition views HERE

2009
Aesthetics Of The Differends, Hollybush Gardens, London
Organon and the wave, with Falke Pisano, Grazer Kunstverein, Graz
The photograph, Croy Nielsen, Berlin

2008
1929, Galerie Thomas Bernard - Cortex Athletico, Bordeaux - exhibition views HERE
La géométrie (toucher Cordélia), Palais de Tokyo, Paris
Desert Solitaire, with Falke Pisano, Hollybush Gardens, London
A text about the second title is in the snow, with Falke Pisano, Croy Nielsen, Berlin

2007
The Repetition, Hollybush, London
Tiresias & the geometry, Art forum art fair, Berlin

2006
Le Présent (the Present), with Etienne Chambaud, Galerie Thomas Bernard - Cortex Athletico, Bordeaux - exhibition views HERE
Twilight of the copyists, Liste 06 - The young art fair, Basel

2004
Flat Screen's Tragedy (ending), Galerie Thomas Bernard - Cortex Athletico, Bordeaux

GROUP SHOW

2019

Masterpieces, Galerie Thomas Bernard - Cortex Athletico

2018
Sculpter (face à l?atelier), La Criée, Beaux-Arts, Rennes

2017
FIAC, Galerie Thomas Bernard - Cortex Athletico, Grand Palais, Paris, France
Sans Réserve, MACVAL, Vitry-sur-Seine, France
2037'', DOC, Paris, France
Zodiaco, Galerie Samy Abraham, Paris, France
Fantôme - Second volet, Sur une invitation de l?association Jeune Création,
Jeune Création, Paris
On affection: Cally Spooner and Bruce Nauman, Nogueras Blanchard, Barcelona

2016
Lito S. Freeman / Benoît Maire, Room East, New York
The Past is the Past, Galerie Thomas Bernard - Cortex Athletico, Paris - exhibition views HERE
Quelques sphinx, VNH Gallery, Paris
Les possédés, Friche la Belle de Mai, Marseille
The Promise of Total Automation (cur. Anne Faucheret), Kunsthalle Wien, Vienna
Zodiaco (cur. Davide Bertocchi), Hopstreet Gallery, Brussels
Objects from the temperate palm house, Bargain Spot, Edinburgh

2015
Anatomie de l'automate, La Panacée, Montpellier
Nel Mezzo del Mezzo, Museo Riso, Palermo
Là où commence le jour, (cur. Marc Donnadieu & Pauline Creteur), Lille-Métropole Musée d'Art Moderne (LAM), Lille
A.N.T.H.R.O.P.O.C.E.N.E, Galerie Meessen De Clercq, Brussels
L'effet Vertigo (collection), Mac/Val, Vitry
20 years of the Halle für Kunst, Lüneburg
Infiltrations, Centre d'art bastille, Grenoble
After Dark, MAMCO, Geneva
The crack-up, Room East, New York
Pauline à la plage, GDM Galerie de Multiples, Paris
Les images constellantes, la Villa du Parc, Annemasse
Transmissions, Ecole des Beaux-Arts, Paris
L'Usage des formes, Palais de Tokyo, Paris
48 Drawings, Spike Art, Berlin
I want to be. Inside Out., Mot international, Brussels
Unendliche Bibliotek, Altefabrik, Rapperswil-Jona

2014
Oracular/Vernacular, Mamo, Marseille
Ernesto, CEAAC, Strasbourg
Quelque chose à vous dire, Galerie Thomas Bernard - Cortex Athletico, Paris - exhibition views HERE
A Thousand Varied Uses, NoguerasBlanchard, Madrid
Zodiaco, Cardrde, Bologna
Les dérivés de la photographie, FRAC Aquitaine, Bordeaux
Soleil politique - The museum between light and shadow, MUSEION, Museum für moderne und zeitgenössische Kunst, Bolzano
Seymour, CEAAC - Centre européen d'actions artistiques contemporaines, Strasbourg
Propos d'Europe 13 : Le musée d'une nuit (script for leaving traces), Fondation Hippocrène, Paris

2013
Archeologia, 40mcube, Rennes
Les archipels réinventés 2, Ricard Foundation Prize, Marseille
Les Pléiades - 40 ans des FRAC, Les Abattoirs, Toulouse
L'amour atomique, Palais des Arts et du Festival, Dinard
The lie and the powerpoint, Shanaynay, Paris
Des gestes de la pensée, La Verrière, Brussels
Paint it black, plateau Frac Île de France, Paris
A house of leaves, David Robert Art Foundation, London
Bow-lal, Juliette Jongma Galerie, Amsterdam

2012
Rotary connection, Casey Kaplan Gallery, New York
Griffith University Art Gallery, Brisbane
Hapax Legomena, Mercer Union, Toronto
Houses of leaves, David Roberts Art Fondation, London
To the Moon via the Beach (cur.Tom Eccles, Liam Gillick, Hans Ulrich Obrist, Philippe Parreno, Beatrix Ruf), Maja Hoffmann, LUMA Foundation, Arles
Who I am? What I'm going here?, Shanaynay, Paris
Le mont Fuji n'existe pas, Frac Ile-de-France, le plateau, Paris
Reed, Look ! We promise it's not dangerous, Emily Havey Foundation, New York

2011
Beyond the Dust, Fondation Ricard, Paris
Collections contemporaines, Centre Pompidou, Paris
Codex, live in you head, Geneva
Il est si doux..., Château Giscours, Margaux - exhibition views HERE
Monitor, Rome
Tableaux, Le Magasin, Grenoble
Institut culturel Bernard Magrez, Bordeaux
Desert Solitaire, CAC Vilnius
The rehearsal of repetition, Grantpirrie, Sidney
Inaugural group show, Croy Nielsen, Berlin
Radical Autonomy, Netwerk, Aalst

2010
Dynasty, Palais de Tokyo, Paris
Somewhere over the rainbow, itinéraire d'une collection, Frac Aquitaine, Bordeaux
Monsieur Miroir, Fondation Ricard, Paris
Beyond the Dust Artists Documents Today, De Vleeshal, Middelburg
Beyond the Dust Artists Documents Today, Fabbrica del Vapore, Milan
Les interlocuteurs, Printemps de Septembre, Toulouse
Memories of the future, Sean Kelly gallery, New York
Une exposition du sensible, Synagogue of Delme
The Wave, with Falke Pisano, Hollybush gallery, London
Il cristallo d'Islanda, Gamec Bergamo
Lucas Francesconi, Benoît Maire, Navid Nuur, Matthew Smith, galerie Chez Valentin, Paris
The sunday of life, COCO Kunstverein, Vienna
ANTIANTIANTI, shapes, contexts & rules, LOG Bergamo
Blind Mirror, Raucci/Santamaria, Napoli
Matériaux divers et autres bonnes nouvelles, Galerie Thomas Bernard - Cortex Athletico, Bordeaux - exhibition views HERE
Marcelle Alix invite Croy Nielsen, Galerie Marcelle Alix, Paris
Dans la forêt, Frac Aquitaine, Bordeaux
Armory Show, Galerie Thomas Bernard - Cortex Athletico, New York - exhibition views HERE
Blood of a poet, Thierry Goldberg project, New York
the obstacle is tautology, Front desk apparatus, New York
Arrivals and Departure_Europe, Mole Vanvitelliana, Ancona
Labyrint 09 Writings and observations, Botkyrka Konsthall, Tumba

2009
FIAC, Cour Carrée du Louvre, Galerie Thomas Bernard - Cortex Athletico, Paris - exhibition views HERE
La Suite, Galerie Air de Paris, Paris
For the blind man in the dark room looking for the black cat that isn't there, ICA, London
Taj Mahal Travellers, Gallery Nordenhake, Stockholm
Radical Autonomy, Le Grand Café, Saint Nazaire
Lisson Presents 6, Lisson Gallery, London
Flüchtige Zeiten, Westfälischer Kunstverein, Münster
Un Nouveau Festival, Centre Pompidou, Paris
Labyrint 09 Writings and observations, Botkyrka Konsthall, Tumba
Le jardin aux chemins qui bifurquent, Kunsthalle, Mulhouse
Liquid times, Westfälischer Kunstverein, Munster
La suite, Air de Paris, Paris
Liste 09 - The young art fair, Galerie Thomas Bernard - Cortex Athletico, Basel - exhibition views HERE
Le chant de la carpe, Centre d'art contemporain, Parc Saint Léger, Pougues-les-Eaux
La collection du XXème siècle, ENSAPC, Paris
Space Revised #3, What if This Was a Piece of Art?, Halle für Kunst, Lüneburg
XXIIème atelier, Frac pays de la Loire, chapter 2, Carquefou
Nous tournons en rond dans la nuit, Musée départemental d'art contemporain, Rochechouart
Paper Exhibition, Artists Space, New York
Fugues, Galerie Hussenot, Paris

2008
Blank Complexity, Karma International, Parisa Kind gallery, Franckfurt
Trahison, CAPC - Musée d'art contemporain, Bordeaux
Nonknowledge, projects arts centre, Dublin
Reversibility, The fair Gallery at Frieze art fair, London
For the First and the Second Time, CAC, Vilnius
Les Feuilles, Palais de Tokyo, Paris
All the best, Gallery one one one, London
XXIIème ateliers internationaux du Frac des Pays de la Loire, chapter 1, Carquefou
Tout la collection du Frac Ile-de-France (ou presque), Mac/Val,Ivry-sur-Seine
L'anomalie d'Ararat, Irmaveplab, Chatillon-sur-Marne
Our eyes see nothing, Tulips and roses, Vilnius
Exercises in seeing, Tulips and roses, Vilnius
One of these things is not like the other things, 1/9 unosunove arte contemporanea, Rome
The artist is a mysterious entertainer, De Appel, Amsterdam
Weisses Lächeln, Croy Nielsen, Berlin
Object, the undeniable success of operations, Stedelijk museum bureau, Amsterdam
We would like to thanks the curators who wish to remain anonymous, seventeen gallery, London
Sans Titre (15 jours), Frac Aquitaine, Bordeaux
The unfair fair, Rome
Excepté peut être une constellation, 220 jours, gb agency, Paris
Katamari, 220 jours / gb agency, Paris

2007
From a distance, Wallspace gallery, New York
Biennale de Lyon, Lyon
Le jardin de Cyrus, galerie Edouard Manet, Gennevilliers
Rooms, Conversations, Frac Ile-de-France, Le Plateau, Paris
Prologue, 220 jours, gb agency, Paris
All we ever see of stars are their olds photographs, 220 jours, Paris
Rien n'aura eu lieu que le lieu, 220 jours / gb agency, Paris
Twice Told Tales, galerie Michel Rein, Paris
On fait le mur..., Espace de l'art concret, Mouans Sartoux
Re-trait, Fondation Ricard, Paris
Proposition de Colloque, Kadist Art Foundation, Paris
The moment You Realise You Are Lost, Johann Koenig gallery, Berlin
The as yet Issue (video screening), De Appel, Amsterdam
There have to be many, Kunstverein Braunschweig, Braunschweig

2006
Meeting Sébastien Planchard, Ellen de Bruijne Projects, Amsterdam
Fiction, la Box, Bourges
The Library, Villa Warsaw, Warsaw
Ausserordentliche Zustände, Berlin
AWOL, Biennial of the young artists, Bucharest
Two scenes in three acts (video screening), Stockholm
Notre Histoire, La Cabane, Palais de Tokyo, Paris
Radio Kills the video stars, Frac Champagne-Ardenne, Reims
Terra Incognita (video screening), Malba, Buenos Aires
Waking-up, Galerie Thomas Bernard - Cortex Athletico, Bordeaux - exhibition views HERE

2005
Rendez-vous, Blue space gallery, Hô Chi Minh
Idealondon, ICA, London
Les apparences sont souvent trompeuses, Capc - Musée d'art contemporain, Bordeaux

2004
Aujourd'hui c'est ravioli, Galerie Thomas Bernard - Cortex Athletico, Bordeaux
Peau d'âne 4, Soardi gallery, Nice


CONFERENCES / PERFORMANCES
2015
One With No Mediation, with Daniel C. Barber, Le Foyer, Zurich
The Escape, Nouveau Festival, Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris

2014
La décision, Ecole des Beaux-Arts, Lyon
La décision, Ecole des Beaux-Arts, Paris
Letre, ENSBA, Lyon

2012
Aesthetics of the Differends, Corner College, Zurich
Critique de la mesure, ESAD, Reims

2011
Esthétique des différends, École des Beaux-Arts, Lyon
à propos de ce dont je ne peux parler, Fondation Ricard, Paris
Esthétique des différends, Rosascape, Paris

2010
Aesthetics of the Differends, National Gallery, Vilnius
Aesthetics of the Differends, Gerrit Rieveld Academy, Amsterdam
Esthétique des différends, Musée d'Art Moderne, Strasbourg

2009
Aesthetics of differends, Istituto svizzero, Milan
Lecture with Jonathan Lahey Dronsfield in collaboration with Hollybush Gardens, Central Saint Martins College of Art and Design London
Comment je réalise certains de mes travaux, Ecole des Beaux-arts, Brest

2008
L'obstacle est la tautologie, galerie Xippas, Paris
Drawing Attention, gallery one one one, London
Drawing Attention, Frac des Pays de la Loire, Carquefou
Discussion with chance, Royal College of Arts, London
L'objet Impossible, École des Beaux-Arts, Mulhouse
L'objet impossible, Frac Lorraine, Metz
Quatre livres, Kadist Art Foundation, Paris

2007
Conversation avec le hasard, espace de l'art concret, Mouans-sartoux
Interrompre Jacques Lacan, Capc - Musée d'art contemporain, Bordeaux

2006
Aesthetics of the conference of aesthetics (distributed text), LSE, London

2005
New Chaotic Idealism, a conference for a dead man, Nash Room, ICA, London    
The signifying monkey, Capc - Musée d'art contemporain, Bordeaux

2004
Flat Screen's tragedy - area - visual / audio / information -45'00, à suivre, Bordeaux
Ce qui reste du ciel, Galerie Thomas Bernard - Cortex Athletico, Bordeaux
L'objet impossible, Capc - Musée d'art contemporain, Bordeaux
Ethique des fantômes, jet FM, Nantes


SCREENINGS
2015
Letre, Palais de Tokyo, salle Mademoiselle (MK2), Paris
L'île de la répétition, Kursaal, Besançon

2014
A Lesson About Cats and Faults, during the launch of Aesthetics of Differends Vol. 2, Rosascape, Paris
Le Concept de Cordélia, in Duras et après, in the programming "Vidéo et après", Centre Pompidou, Paris

2013
Le Berger, Cinémathèque, Vancouver

2012
The Wave, Tramway festival of Artist's Moving Image, Glasgow

2011
L'île de la répétition, La Femis, Paris
Le Berger / La Châsse / The Wave /The Spider's web / C'est comme ça que la mode est née / Le souvenir de la coulure constance Mayer/ Une raison de ne pas écrire sa vie, Centre Pompidou, Paris

2010
L'île de la répétition, Cinéma Utopia, Bordeaux
L'île de la répétition, CAC, Bretigny
L'île de la répétition, SALANS, Paris
L'île de la répétition, Tate Modern, London
Repetition Island, National Gallery, Vilnius


CURATING
2016
Quelques sphinx, VNH Gallery, Paris

2015
Photographies du soir, Crèvecoeur, by Julien Carreyn with Ker Xavier, Jorge Mantas, Claudine Monchaussé, Paris

2013
Broken Windows, New-York Gallery, New-York

2010
L'obstacle est la tautologie, Studio D1 cité des arts montmartre, Paris

2009
L'obstacle est la tautologie, with Jonas Zakaitis, Tulips and roses, Vilnius


WORKSHOPS
2011-2012
Teaching in the Work Master dept. of visual arts, HEAD, Geneva

2007
Scénographie de Sans tuer on ne peut pas, CDN, La Rochelle
Grand atelier, École des Beaux-Arts, Bordeaux

2005
We rule the school : conversations and research, Arteleku, San Sebastian

2000
Tutor for the department of Aesthetics, University of Bordeaux 3


PUBLICATIONS
2014
Aesthetics of Differends Vol. 2, Rosascape, Paris
Detours Which Have To Be Investigated, book/CD/DVD, a homage to composer Morton Feldman with Ivan Ilic, HEAD - Genève
Lying weapon on the beach, NERO, à l'occasion de l'exposition Spiaggia di menzogne (Lying Beach) à la Fondazione Giuliani, Rome, 2013           
Critique de la mesure, in Pourparlers Deleuze entre art et philosophie, Editions et Presses universitaires de Reims
Collaborative works. Benoît Maire - Falke Pisano, Edition Manucius, Paris
The long godbeye, edition of 250 artist's book, Onestar press, Paris

2013
Esthétique des différends (2ème volume), Rosascape, Paris

2012
The object of Criticism, published on the occasion of the exhibition of the same title in De Vleeshal, Middelburg in 2011, Roma Publications, Amsterdam

2011
Esthétique des différends, édition Rosascape, édition limité - livre d'artiste, édition Rosascape
Aesthetics of differends (extracts), in The Encyclopedia of Fictional Artists and the Addition, edited by Koen Brams and Krist Gruijthuijsen, JRP Ringier, Zurich
Materiality of the theory, Article Press, BIAD (Birmingham City University)

2010
Repetition Island, Skulpi, Berlin
Organon (and the audience perception), Paletten n°2 2010, Göteborg
Esthétique des différends, Palais, magazine du Palais de Tokyo, été 2010, Paris
Esthétique des différends, the crystal hypothesis, cat. Gamec, Bergamo

2008
Why do we like images from the past (with Raimundas Malasauskas), The Mock, London
The square in a forest, Westhphalie Verlag, Vienna
La répétition de l'affect, text, Berlin

2007
What is consciousness?, Revolver, Frankfurt
Tiresias, Artlies (in future perfect cur. by R. Malasauskas), Houston
Spéculation, FR David, Magazine, De Appel
Interrompre Jacques Lacan, Cross, Italy (with The Unready)
Meeting Sébastien Planchard, in Spéculation, FR David, Magazine, De Appel

2006
Elements for a discussion after the end of neon in exhibitions, Omagiu, Bucharest
The square in a forest, Palais de Tokyo, Paris

2005
New Chaotic Idealism, manifesto, IDEA London


WRITINGS
2009
Aesthetics of the End of Time, an essay on Liam Gillick, ed. MIT Press
Insert in Home for lost ideas, Archive books

2004
Claire Roudinko Bertin, 02 n°31, Nantes
Personne n'est innocent, 02 n°31, Nantes
Héros dans le désert, Le 5ème mur, Bordeaux
L'ennui du clown postmoderne, Le 5ème mur, Bordeaux
Des différentes vitesses de ce que l'on nomme communément la réalité (pour aller vite), catalogue les enfants de Sabat 5, Centre d'art du creux de l'enfer, Thiers
Remakes, Revue d'Esthétique, Paris

2003
Hantises de surface (with Etienne Chambaud), catalogue of Lee 3 central armory show, Villa Arson, Nice


CATALOGUES
2014
Collaborative Works. Benoît Maire - Falke Pisano, Manucius editions, Paris
Me + You in a living Room, SongEun ArtSpace with Fondation Ricard

2013
Les Archipels Réinventés 2, Centre Pompidou / Fondation d'entreprise Ricard

2012
History of Geometry, text Valerie Knoll, ed Archive Books

2011
The Object of Criticism, text Lorenzo Benedetti, ed. Roma

2010
Dynasty, Palais de Tokyo
L'île de la répétition, Dent de Leone, London, on the occasion of the exhibition L'espace Nu, Frac Aquitaine
Qu'est-ce que l'art aujourd'hui, Le crépuscule des copistes, Lorenzo Cirrincione, Beaux-Arts Editions
Beyond the Dust, Roma Publication
The crystal hypothesis, cat. Gamec, Bergamo
Monsieur Miroir, catalogue of the 12th Ricard prize, Paris
ArtBasel 40

2009
Du Yodel à la physique quantique, Volume 2, p. 108-109, fig. # 74, éd. Palais de Tokyo
Chapitre III (Les récits autorisés), XXIIème Ateliers internationaux du Frac des Pays de la Loire
Younger than Jesus Generation Book, cat. New Museum, New York, ed Paidon 2009

2008
Le Pavillon, p. 182, 240, 286, 28 7, éd. Le cercle d'art
Resituation, cat. la box, Bourges, 2008

2007
L'histoire d'une décennie qui n'est pas encore nommée, Biennale de Lyon, Stéphanie Moisdon and Hans Ulrich Obrist p. 173, 286

2006
Awol, catalogue biennale Awol, p. 128


GRANTS
2010
CNAP, Image / Mouvement

2009
Cité internationale des arts

2005
Drac Aquitaine


AWARDS
2010
Prix Ricard, Fondation d'Entreprise Ricard


PUBLIC & PRIVATE COLLECTIONS
Vancouver Art Gallery, Vancouver
David Roberts art Foundation, London
MAC / VAL, Vitry-sur-Seine
Fondazione Giuliani, Rome
FRAC Franche-Comté
CAPC Musée d'art contemporain, Bordeaux
FRAC Aquitaine, Bordeaux
FRAC Ile-de-France, Paris
Kadist Art Foundation, Paris
Musée National d'Art Moderne, Centre Pompidou, Paris
FNAC Fonds National d'Art Contemporain, Paris
Artothèque de Pessac
Institut Culturel Bernard Magrez, Bordeaux
Nomas Foundation, Rome
Fondation Francès, Senlis

Guillaume Desanges
Published in Journal de la Verrière, n°5
on the occasion of the exhibition Letre by Benoît Maire, included in the program « Des gestes de la pensée »
Fondation d'entreprise Hermès

Benoît Maire's prolific, wide-ranging work includes sculpture, drawing, painting, film, performance, and photography, together with lectures, workshops, publications and research papers. His fundamental approach centres on the practice of collage: images, documents, objects and texts are drawn together by a precise network of references drawn from philosophy, the sciences, psychoanalysis, film and literature. Maire's quest for ultimate, concrete expression of the intellectual foundations of his work reflects that of other artists of his generation, seeking to renew the practice of conceptual art by quite deliberately looking beyond the schism between the object and the idea.

Maire's radical, wholehearted affirmation of forms loaded with complex metaphysical considerations makes him a natural choice for the "Gesture, and thought" season at La Verrière. Taking as its starting-point the tutelary figure of Marcel Duchamp, and his redeployment of traditional artisan skills, the season highlights a variety of approaches to the direct, electric extension of thought into (art)work.
In this context, Benoît Maire has created a new work specifically for La Verrière ? the third in a series of recent, signature exhibitions (1). LETRE plays on the French homonyms of its title ? lettre or "letter" and l'être, a creature or being ? as the pretext for a vast installation of sculptures, materials and collages arranged as a composition governed by no explicit rules, exploring sensation and the expression of thought as form.
The advent of conceptual art focused attention on the ways in which contemporary art has sought to annexe the world of philosophy: the movement reflected a fascination for a particular kind of immateriality, challenging the image of the visual arts as "servile", at worst technicist, at best intuitive and affective. The artwork's programmatic purpose was unconnected, even inimical, to questions of technical virtuosity and subjective inspiration.

Today, artists of Benoît Maire's generation ? "concrete postconceptualists" ? draw on metaphysical references while at the same time embracing rather than eschewing form and objects. This generation is interested less in "pure" thought and more in its manifestations and accessories (books, images, culture), drawing on knowledge as a raw material in its own right. Hence, Maire's ambitious project centres on a range of exploratory works in progress, investigating how best to enact certain philosophical motifs as forms (Lacan, Wittgenstein and Kierkegaard feature regularly), which are themselves an opportunity for an enquiring, critical assessment of the resulting, fundamental schism between art and poetry.
L'île de la répétition ("Repetition Island"), for example, is the title of a full-length, metaphorical, fictional film presented as fragments interacting with sculptures composed of arrangements of found furniture, and copies of Antique statues (2) in carefully worked, elaborate compositions whose interpretation is left deliberately open. Another work in progress ? Esthétique des différends ("Aesthetics of differing things") ? is an exploration of the relationship between saying and seeing, taking the form of arrangements of texts, images and notes presented on plinths, but which also includes the publication of a book of theoretical reflections on the subject (the second volume is published to coincide with the present exhibition). In Benoît Maire's work, the metaphor is at times even more direct: books about nature are presented on plinths, like landscapes (3); women's court shoes filled with geometrical shapes in alabaster stress the link between absence and subtraction, fetishism and substitution in sculpture; a hole is bored into a German encyclopedia of philosophy (4). Clearly, Maire is developing a form of "synthetism" in his work ? an informed mix of genres at the crossroads of conceptual art, minimal art and Arte Povera, overlaid with a penchant for classicism. Benoît Maire's art looks beyond the schism between materialisation and dematerialisation; it seeks to diminish the rift between abstraction and figuration.

At its core, we see a playful mind at work: Maire presents a formal engagement with philosophy (which he studied alongside art, at university in Paris) in his free-ranging, detached, unencumbered ? but thoroughly scholarly ? relationship to theory. A relationship which is ultimately more literary than analytical or demonstrative; a relationship as passionate as it is unfaithful. More precisely, Maire's analytical approach is wholly driven by its flirtation with aesthetics, poetics, the tragic and the romantic. This is a regimen of signs, traces, clues, occupying the middle ground between fetishism, hermetism and sensuality, freely acknowledging its own, potentially problematic preciosity. Phrases from Benoît Marie's titles and writings ("the severed finger pointing at transcendance" or "Giacometti's Nose inspecting the real hole in Reality") testify to a lyrical, metaphysical style where meaning is left hanging, mysterious and for that reason troublingly, doubly seductive; dedicated, it seems, to transforming theories into nascent scenarios, while remaining open to the world of the emotions. In this sense, what we have is an art (rather than an "aesthetics" in the philosophical sense) of thought: witness Maire's photographic series of sunsets along a road in Argentina, identified as "the twilight of the copyists" (5), or his raft with an Argos marker buoy, adrift in the ocean, entitled Position actuelle de l'idéalisme ("The current position of idealism") (6). A fine metaphor, functioning as a mise en abyme for the artist's work as a whole. This constant disconnect in Maire's work, between raw materiality and intellectual ambition, the surface of the visible world and the depths of thought, is the literal embodiment of his critical examination of the limits of representation in art. His intellectual curiosity is tinged ? we feel sure ? with gentle irony. And this dichotomy between seriousness and whimsy or fantasy, theoretical ambition and vanity, harks back to the origins of Western philosophy. We are reminded of the Greek philosophers' insistence on an ability to stand back and laugh at oneself, without which thinking is impossible (cf. the personality of Diogenes (7) or Plato's account of the mocking laughter of the Thracian serving-girl (8).

At a deeper level, Benoît Maire does not see the superficial disconnect between words and form as a weakness or limitation, but as the nub, the very essence of his approach. Philosophy is questionable, problematic, unresolved, its operational boundaries defined by impossibility, aporia, ineffability and failure.
This fundamental equation between outer form and inner substance, intention and material outcomes, is the key to Benoît Maire's superficially disparate, paradoxically coherent art.

1-beings at Hollybush Gardens (London) and LETTER at Western Front (Vancouver), 2014.
2-L'espace nu at FRAC Aquitaine, 2010.
3-Wo Ich die Erde am schönsten fand / Désert solitaire, with Falke Pisano, 2008.
4-Holes in Philosophy # 2, 2008.
5-Le crépuscule des copistes, 2006.
6-Position actuelle de l'idéalisme, with Étienne Chambaud, 2007-2008.
7-Diogenes of Sinope was an ancient Greek philosopher, a founder of the Cynic school, to whom many anecdotes and aphorisms are attributed. Presented variously as a debauched hedonist and a rigorous ascetic, he was a master of the art of invective and the cutting phrase. Asked why he walked the streets carrying a lantern in broad daylight, he replied "I am looking for [a true] man." When Alexander the Great visited Diogenes, offering to grant the philosopher anything he desired, Diogenes replied "Stand out of my light."
8-"Socrates: Why, take the case of Thales, Theodorus. While he was studying the stars and looking upwards, he fell into a pit, and a neat, witty Thracian servant girl jeered at him, they say, because he was so eager to know the things in the sky that he could not see what was there before him at his very feet. The same jest applies to all who pass their lives in philosophy." Plato, Theaetetus, 174 a (from Plato in Twelve Volumes, Vol. 12 translated by Harold N. Fowler. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press; London: William Heinemann Ltd. 1921.)