Text & Captions

"At the start of each new project I undertake, I make a list of objects and concepts that seem interesting to link together. These words then become images that then become a structural beam of indexes for my project. This chain of found images - a view from a space telescope, a linear, psychadelic rendering of a vortex, and a photograph of spheres - is the collage that brings together my thinking for the Grand Mobile andVanishing Point, the exhibition in the Espace 315."

"Parallel to computer generated renderings, I almost always make a scale model of 1 : 20 for all of my projects. The Forum of the Centre Pompidou is so big that the model filled my entire studio. Instead of suspending the spheres of the mobile in a complicated network of wires that would be difficult to manipulate, I opted to decide the placement of each sphere by attaching them to "stems" that were positioned in this model."

"I wanted to make a work that would occupy a large volume proportionate in scale to the Forum of the Centre Pompidou while remaining somewhat transparent and without appearing authoritarian. My sculptural project Le Grand Mobileressembles a thought bubble; it is like the sum of all of the thoughts of the visitors at the Centre Pompidou. It also relates to my desire to work in spaces that are more open and less protected; spaces where the notion of authorship is blurred such as in the case of architecture and art that is conceived for public space."

Extract from Xavier Veilhan, with texts by Alison M. Gingeras, Christine Macel, Xavier Veilhan (in French and in English), exhibition catalogue, Espace 315, livre n°5, Centre Pompidou, Paris, 2004.

Le Grand Mobile/The Big Mobile, 2004. Structure métallique, 25 sphères de 75 à 350 cm de diamètre en PVC/metallic structure, 25 spheres in PVC with diameter from 29,5 to 137,8 inch; approx. 440m2. Courtesy Andréhn - Schiptjenko, Stockholm; Galerie Emmanuel Perrotin, Paris/Miami; Gering&Lopez, New York. Production/Engineered by Enzyme Design for AIA Productions. Copyright Veilhan/adagp Paris, 2008.

Big Mobile 01 to 06 : Exhibition views, Forum, Centre Pompidou, Paris, 20.10.04 - 03.01.05. Photo © : Centre Pompidou, Jean-Claude Planchet. 

Big Mobile 07 : Exhibition view, Water (Without You I’m Not) - Thoughts of a fish in the deep sea, 3rd Biennal of Contemporary Art of Valencia, 24.09.05 - 30.11.05. Photo © : Jordi Pla.

Big Mobile 08 & 09 : Exhibition views, Water (Without You I’m Not) - Thoughts of a fish in the deep sea, 3rd Biennal of Contemporary Art of Valencia, 24.09.05 - 30.11.05. Photo © : Xavier Veilhan.

Big Mobile 10 to 17 : Exhibition views, Art Gallery of Ontario, Luminato Festival, Toronto, 01.06.07 - 10.06.07. Photo © : Melissa Goldstein.

Video Clip Installation Basel : Art Unlimited, Basel, 14-18.06.06. Directed by Cadmos.