Background
Jean-Luc Moulène was born on December 28, 1955, in Reims, France.
Jean-Luc Moulène was born on December 28, 1955, in Reims, France.
In 1978, Moulène received a Bachelor of Arts degree from the University of Paris 1 Pantheon-Sorbonne. The following year, in 1979, he got a Master of Arts degree from the same university.
At the beginning of his career, Jean-Luc held a post of a Professor at different educational establishments, including the National School of Communication, Art and Design, Nancy, in 1992, the School of Art, Grenoble, in 1994, and the School of Art and Design, Amiens, in 1999.
As an artist, Jean-Luc first created enigmatic photographic works. Later, his projects began to investigate the intersections of advanced technology and contemporary material culture. In consideration of current advances in 3D modeling and fabrication, Moulène compares this moment in the history of object making to the advent of photography and its total transformation of human experience.
His work "Produits de Palestine" (2002-2004) documents a number of retail goods, from wafers to women’s underwear, manufactured in Gaza and the West Bank, starkly photographed individually or in pairs. By enabling the products’ images to be seen by viewers (or consumers) of art, Moulène symbolically circumvents the trade sanctions, imposed on the occupied territories.
During his career, he took part in numerous solo and group exhibitions, held at different art centres, museums and galleries, including the Galerie Art Concept, Nice; Galerie Peter Kilchmann, Zurich; Green on Red Gallery, Dublin; Taipei Fine Arts Museum, Taipei; Grand Palais, Paris; Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris, and many others.
Jean-Luc participated in the Documenta X (1997), the São Paulo Biennial (2002), the Venice Bienniale (2003), the Taipei Biennial (2004 and 2016), the First International Biennial of the Image (Laos, 2007) and the Sharjah Biennial (2010).
Currently, the artist lives and works in Paris.
Jean-Luc Moulène is a prominent artist, whose oeuvre is better typified by the question of how people encounter consumer goods. One of his most famous works is "Amsterdam Girls" series.
Also, his works are kept in the collections of different museums, art institutions and other establishments, including the Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles; Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris; Musée d'Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris; Louis Vuitton Foundation, Paris, and others.
Moulène photographs his subjects against monochromatic backgrounds with a disarming lack of affectation or sentiment. His method also frequently involves recycling images from older collections of photographs and using them in newer works.
Also, Moulène insists, that no work of art exists "without conditions and constraints...without material, economic, historic and bodily conditions".
Quotations: "Life, love and death are what interest me. As an artist, I don’t see why I shouldn’t reinject them into my work."
