The House of Raw Matter, Niek van de Steeg and Valérie Cudel

The House of Raw Matter follows the deluxe limited edition of 15 made in 2012 within the exhibition programmes of Le Centre d’art Le LAIT in Albi and Art3, Valence. Niek van de Steeg intensifies his epic on the theme of raw material with the addition of a fourth portrait of a fisherman, Cédric Giroud, whose story is bound to a viscous, synthetic oil detected in the River Rhône: the polychlorinated biphenyl, collectively known as PCB..

Since the beginning of the 1990s, Niek van de Steeg has developed forms as fragments of reality. They are the centre of his creative process and form the basis of a construction, which is each time incarnated in an exhibition. After Le Pavillon à vent, la T.G.A.D. and its various developments, The House of Raw Matter permits the artist to interrogate the principle of reality and that of exploitation and its networks. What happens before the raw matter arrives, after various transformations and on the market? After examining coffee, Niek van de Steeg turns to asbestos and uranium. How does man shape the land to extract these raw materials?

Published by Captures
Edition of 500
Softcover
36 pages
21 x 26 mm
ISBN 9782953391251