Contemporary Arts Center
Lois & Richard Rosenthal Center
for Contemporary Art
44 E. 6th Street,
Cincinnati, OH 45202
513 345 8400
Artist Details
Etienne Boulanger was born in Longeville-lès-Metz (France) in 1976 and died in New York (USA) in 2008. He studied at Fine Arts in Nancy (France), and graduated in 2000 ( DNSEP).
Etienne Boulanger’s research is focused on the re-appropriation of transitory zones. He produced cunning and intrusive interventions within the urban environment and also ephemeral installations in art galleries and institutions. As a nomadic artist, he wandered through the cities which are the symbols for the "metropolization" process such as like Berlin, Beijing, Shanghai, Tokyo or New York. He located gaps, fallow lands, and residual spaces in order to take over the place using a clever masking strategy. His works, set up on site, do not represent nor reproduce objects. The temporary interventions and the clandestine occupation of these places, are meant to cast a critical look on our environment. Through active discretion, he exchanged ideas with the other users of these spaces.
Etienne Boulanger also used a large number of media to keep a record of his work, from location to the eventual results of his actions. He systematically displayed photographs, slides and videos but also photocopies, drawings, plans, maps and other writtings during exhibitions. That documentation came from a methodical yet not too rigid process, and was considered by the artist as an evolutive database, the report of a process, just like cities in perpetual mutation.
*Courtesy of etienneboulanger.com
Additional Information