This publication accompanies Jean-Luc Moulène’s exhibition Enlightenments at Thomas Dane Gallery, in Naples (17 Sep – 14 Dec 2024).
Enlightenments presents an array of works from Opus, a body of work that has been in progress since 1995. These include Moulène’s ‘Objets’ / ‘Objects’, which have been central to contemporary narratives and discourses on sculpture and have been included in significant surveys in institutions such as the Hayward Gallery and at the 58th Venice Biennale. Yet, Moulène conceives of his three-dimensional works as objects, eschewing the connotations of sculpture and questioning the nature and future of the form.
The 36 works in the exhibition are placed according to a mathematical grid across the gallery walls and floor. Each work sits at an intersection of this superimposed grid, in an arrangement that is without hierarchy and that creates a space to be perceived ‘apart’ from the existing space of the gallery. Demonstrating Moulène’s exploration of materials, the exhibition presents cardboard, plastic, plaster, bronze, zinc, aluminium, wood, bones, chicken wore, silicone, fabric or concrete adorned with resin, paint, glue, ink, silver leaf, wax and mushroom spores. Its focal point is Fixed Zinc, Hobart, a work made from alloyed zinc, smelted on the shores of the River Derwent and Bell Bay of Tasmania, which was first shown at MONA in Hobart in 2023. It is shown alongside Vortex, which evokes the form of Mount Vesuvius, which can be seen from the gallery veranda. Recontextualised against the backdrop of Naples, the works are exhibited in an intricate network of relationships, each existing in a manner equally as enigmatic and complex as the city itself.