In collaboration with Galerie Placido, Paris

For its new exhibition, the Avant Galerie Vossen brings together, with Galerie Placido, some twenty artists around the theme of the Rectangle. With this exhibition, the gallery continues to forge links between traditional practices and digital forms. *Black Rectangle* brings together painting, sculpture, installation, and new technologies.

A legendary motif
In the Lascaux caves, beneath the deer and bison we’ve known since childhood, researcher Stanislas Dehaene uncovered something unexpected: a black rectangle beneath the painting of the deer. The first geometric shape drawn by humankind. A minimal yet decisive sign—the beginning of symbolic thought, according to the researcher; this ability to create symbols is what makes us human; we are symbolic beings.
Several millennia later, the black rectangle is still there, more than ever. It has multiplied; it covers our phone screens and our digital interfaces. The black rectangle censors, protects, hides. It is the form of imposed silence as much as it is of minimalist art. It is the browser window and the redaction bar. And it covers the walls of the Avant Galerie Vossen.

The black rectangle—poetic, humorous, political, algorithmic...
In the exhibition, the black rectangle takes on a poetic form for painters and sculptors. It is a humorous form for Apolline Régent when she plays with the legacy of the painter Malevich.
It is a political form when Enora Denis finds it in facial recognition patents, masking the faces that feed the algorithms. It is an algorithmic form when Olivain Porry programs an AI to lie to other AIs and other humans. It is a physical form, rooted in the street, when Aram Bartholl seals a USB drive into the wall on Rue Chapon. It is fabric and sound when Cécile Babiole weaves electrical cables as one would weave wool.

In collaboration with Galerie Placido, 41 rue Chapon, 75003 Paris


Also mark your calendars for

Thursday, May 28 . Speed Show . 6:00 PM – 9:00 PM
Curated by Aram Bartholl, Hugo du Plessix, and Émilie Blanchard
At the same time as the opening reception at 42 rue de Sébastopol, Aram Bartholl will take over a Parisian internet café for one night and invite artists to participate in the Speed Show. All computers are rented. All works are online, accessible via a standard web browser.

The public is invited to move freely between the two locations. Two venues, two formats, one night.

Address: 31 rue de Sébastopol, 75003



Thursday, June 4. Pictionary Night. 6:00 PM – 9:00 PM
Several artists and visitors to the exhibition gather around a table. The rectangle motif is the rule of the game and the pretext for everything else. The drawings circulate, are reinterpreted, and drift. Everyone sees their black rectangle at their doorstep.

Address: 58 rue Chapon, 75003



Thursday, June 11. My Google Search History Redaction Evening. 6:00 PM – 9:00 PM
To mark the release of the book “Critical Texts: My Google Search History by Claude.ai,” book signing by Albertine Meunier.

Address: 58 rue Chapon, 75003