Julian Charrière

Background

Ethnicity: Julian was born to a Swiss father and a French mother.

Julian Charrière was born in 1987, in Morges, Switzerland.

Education

In 2006, Julian attended the École cantonale d’art du Valais in Switzerland, where he studied under Professor Valentin Carron. The following year, in 2007, he left for Berlin, where he studied at Berlin University of the Arts under Professor Christiane Möbus. In 2011, Charrière continued his studies at Olafur Eliasson’s Institute of Spatial Experiments, graduating in 2013.

Career

Besides working as a solo artist, Charrière has worked together with other artists, and as a member of the Berlin-based artist collective - Das Numen. In 2012, Julian worked together with the artist Julius von Bismarck on the site-specific performance piece, called "Some Pigeons Are More Equal Than Others", for the 13th International Architecture Exhibition – La Biennale di Venezia. The work incorporates a pigeon trapping device, designed by Charrière and Bismarck. This equipment is positioned in a public place to capture and subsequently airbrush pigeons as they chart their path within the vicinity. The project has also been adapted for performances and installations in Copenhagen and Berlin. Charrière and Bismarck continued to work together, producing several works.

Also, many of Julian's works were created as the results of various expeditions around the world, focusing on locations, impacted by humanity. Such locations include a 30,000-year-old iceberg in Iceland, a gigantic Bolivian salt flat, volcanoes in Mexico, Stalin’s nuclear test sites in Kazakhstan and the isolated region of Chernobyl. The most notable works, created during Julian's trips to some of these places, include a series of photography, documenting the desolate remnants of the sites, exposed to nuclear materials, giving the invisible force of radioactivity a visible presence within the images.

Charriére has exhibited his work, both individually and as a part of the Berlin-based art collective Das Numen, at museums and institutions worldwide, including the Parasol Unit Foundation for Art in London, Musée des Beaux-Arts de Lausanne in Switzerland, Centre Culturel Suisse in Paris, Haus der Kulturen der Welt in Berlin, Kunsthalle Wien in Vienna, Thyssen Bornemizsa Art Contemporary in Vienna, Neue Nationalgalerie in Berlin, The Reykjavik Art Museum in Iceland, the Museum of Contemporary Art in Tokyo, The Kochi-Muziris Biennale in India and at the 12th Biennale de Lyon in France.

Currently, Julian lives and works in Berlin, Germany.

Achievements

• Julian Charrière gained prominence for a research-based practice, rooted in geology, biology, physics, history and archaeology. One of his most recognized pieces, created with German artist Julius von Bismarck, is called "Some pigeons are more equal than others". The artists created a device, that trapped and quickly dyed the feathers of random pigeons in the Piazza San Marco, Venice, causing passersby to notice an animal, that is generally overlooked as part of the landscape.
  
  During his career, the artist received many honors, including the Kiefer Hablitzel Award in 2013 and 2015, Artgrant Award in 2013, Regina Pistor prize in 2013, Prix culturel Manor in 2014, Kaiserring Stipendium für junge Kunst in 2016 and GASAG Art Prize in 2018.

Works

More photos

• installation

  • Metamorphism XXXXI

  • Metamorphism XXXXII

  • We Are All Astronauts

  • Tropisme

  • Somewhere

  • On The Sidewalk

  • To Observe Is To Influence

  • Coconut Lead Fondue

  • Future Fossil Spaces (set 1)

• music

  • An Invitation To Disappear 2018

• performance piece

  • Some Pigeons Are More Equal Than Others

• photo

  • An Invitation to Disappear - Sorong

  • Nutmeg - First Light

  • Polygon XXVIII

  • The Blue Fossil Entropic Stories I

  • Panorama 52° 31' 10.81" N 13° 24' 44.14" E

  • Sycamore - First Light

  • Where Waters Meet [3.71 atmospheres]

Views

In his oeuvre, Julian applies photography, performance, installation, sculpture and video to address concepts, relating to time and society's relationship to the natural world. Time is also an often used material as Charrière produces artworks, intended to create and exist within their own timeline, while commenting on their place within the broader human timescale.

Quotations: "I use some scientific methods, but I would describe it more as an archeologist or geologist. I go into the field and get inspired by what I see, then I bring things back to the studio and do work."

Connections

mentor:

Olafur Eliasson

mentor:

Valentin Carron

mentor:

Christiane Möbus

colleague:

Julius von Bismarck

References

• Julian Charrière: Second Suns French-Swiss artist Julian Charrière’s work in "Second Suns" investigates the postnuclear landscapes and architecture of the Bikini Atoll and Semipalatinsk, Kazakhstan ― respectively American and Soviet nuclear testing sites. This investigation comprises photographs, sculpture and video works, as well as expedition documentation.
  2019
• Julian Charrière - Silent World
  2019