Philippe Ramette

Philippe Ramette (*1961 Auxerre, FR) casts himself as protagonist in a series of his own works. The locations in which the artist is shown are unusual, if not impossible. In both of the works now in the possession of the EPO, he is depicted defying gravity. In Contemplation irrationnelle the artist sits in a suit on a chimney overlooking the rooftops of night-time Paris. Inversion de pesanteur shows him on a canopy. Here, though, the architecture has been rotated through 180degrees. Ramette is standing on the underside of the canopy, which now calls to mind a springboard. Sculpture is the form of art most of interest to Ramette, engaging with it, as he does, even without creating three-dimensional objects. His photographs, however, raise questions central to the field of sculpture regarding the relationship between the body and space, the body and architecture. His casting of himself again and again is also a comment on the role of the artist – and that of pictures.