For fifteen years, Philippe Ramette has been developing a work evolving around the conception and the realisation of objects in their relation to the body or, more precisely, objects expressing the reflexive dimension of the body. These pieces are often instruments or dispositifs designed to experience physically what should only be a mental process.
If Philippe Ramette has defined himself first of all as sculptor, his photographic work, which at the beginning was of a relatively small scale, is now a medium of choice for all kinds of experience and experimentation.
In 2004, during his previous exhibition at the Xippas gallery, Philippe Ramette showed an ensemble of prostheses-sculptures designed for a series of photographs which were inspired by the swinging device used in the Balconies Series. Turning the image or his own body upside down, the artist is challenging the world and defying the laws of gravity. The protheses, hidden under a traditional suit and tie and not visible on the pictures, allow the artist to experience what he himself calls « irrational postures » during the brief moment of the shooting.
Continuing his photographic projects initiated in 2004, Philippe Ramette will present a new ensemble of photography called Rational Explorations Of The Undersea Grounds. The photographs represent the artist as a solitary underwater stroller who totally ignores the constraints of the depth.
At the same time, Philippe Ramette will show a group of Levitation of chairs. One of them was already exhibited at the FIAC in 2005. These painted bronze sculptures simulate the real textures and colours of wood and rope, thus creating the illusion of levitation in a poetical mode. The artist himself calls his works “photographic sculptures”. They depict the instantaneousness of a movement: the moment when the chair flies away and escapes from the rope that has retained it.
In addition, a bronze moulded of the artist’s forearm is fixed to the ceiling, offering a stretched out hand to the public.
Philippe Ramette was born in 1961. He lives and works in Paris.
The photographic works of Philippe Ramette will be shown in seven European cities during Mutations 1, an exhibition organized within the framework of the European Month of Photography from November 2, 2006 to January 7, 2007. These sites are: Maison Européenne de la Photographie (Paris), MD Berlin (Berlin), Fotofo (Bratislava), Association Café Crème(Luxemburg), Vladimir und Estragon (Vienna).
In 2005, Philippe Ramette presented Espace d’anticipation at the Museum of Picardy in Amiens, and the Koldo Mitxelena Kulturunea in San Sebastian (Spain) showed an individual presentation of his work together with Oliver Boberg. His work was recently shown during the exhibition La force de l’art at the Grand Palais in Paris (Curator: Dominique Marchès).
