Denis Monfleur. Les désaxés, Paris, Éditions Lord Byron, 2022
1st edition
Edition of 300 copies
Hardcover, 21 x 29,7 cm, 152 pages
French English edition
Translated in English by Antoine de Mautor
ISBN : 978-2-491901-35-6
Denis Monfleur. Les désaxés is the catalog published for the artist's solo exhibition from July 1 to October 2, 2022 in Bagnoles-de-l'Orne (FR) as part of "Un été ornais contemporain" organized by the Fonds départemental d'art contemporain de l'Orne under the direction of Pierrick Bigot. It includes prefaces by Christophe de Balorre, Arnaud Boulanger and Pauline Vollais, and texts by Eric Darragon and Eric Vuillard.
Born on December 14, 1962 in Périgueux, Denis Monfleur lives and works in Fontenay-sous-Bois and the Dordogne. As a young man, he abandoned modeling for stone work and direct carving, a difficult technique in which, he says, "there is no repentance possible". The total transition to granite will take several years. At first, his artistic vocabulary is clearly figurative: the human being is at the center of his work, but with a universal and not individual dimension (they are not "portraits"). Over time, he enriched his techniques (mirror polish alternating with matt parts, polychromy), diversified his materials by tending towards harder and harder stones (basalt, basaltic organs, volcanic lava, diorite...), approached monumental sculpture or work in progress series - including Individus, which gathers on the same base nearly 300 different characters in lava from Mont-Dore -, introduced polychrome enameling... At the end of 2019, he creates the "rocailles", where a multitude of stone chips added to the work compose a kind of over-modeling. In 2020, he collaborates with choreographer/dancer Anne-Sophie Lancelin, who will wear a rockwork mask for one of his creations. Denis Monfleur's work has been the subject of several public purchases and institutional commissions, and is included in a large number of private collections in France and abroad (Germany, Argentina, Belgium, Colombia, British Columbia, the United States, the Netherlands, Quebec, the United Kingdom, Uruguay). Since 2010, he is represented by the Claude Bernard Gallery. In 2016, he was elevated to the rank of Knight in the Order of Arts and Letters.
Eric Darragon is a former student of André Chastel and a former resident of the Villa Médicis (1971-1973). He previously taught at the University of Paris-X Nanterre and at the University François-Rabelais in Tours. Currently professor emeritus of art history at the University of Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne, former director of the Centre de recherche histoire culturelle et sociale de l'art (EA 4100) and the Centre inter-universitaire de recherche en art contemporain (CIRHAC), he is a member of the editorial board of the journals Critique d'art and Perspective.
Born in 1968 in Lyon, Éric Vuillard is a writer and filmmaker known for his historical accounts. He has directed two films, L'homme qui marche and Mateo Falcone. He is the author of Conquistadors, awarded the Grand prix littéraire du Web - special mention of the jury 2009 and the Ignatius J. Reilly Prize 2010. He received the Franz-Hessel Prize 2012 and the Valery-Larbaud Prize 2013 for two stories published by Actes Sud, La bataille d'Occident and Congo as well as the Joseph-Kessel Prize 2015 for Tristesse de la terre, the Alexandre Viallate Prize for 14 juillet and the Goncourt Prize 2017 for L'ordre du jour.
