CHRISTÓS

A statuette of Christ stands on a plinth, face degraded, wounded body in the position of crucifixion, without arms or feet, in imitation of a wooden sculpture, but silver-coloured. Christós—“messiah” in Greek—is a reproduction of an original piece in carved wood that the artist had cast and then reproduced in nickel-plated bronze, a goldsmithing technique used in the decorative and sumptuary arts.

Magnified by a stand, requalified, turned into a “treasure,” the work refers with humour and radicalism to an aesthetic of appropriation. Bertrand Lavier thus questions the notion of representation, museography, and of the status of the work, while also exploring the boundary between copy and original and the question of signature and authenticity. Disruptive and irreverent, his work “shakes up categories” and questions our ways of seeing and perceiving reality.

This work is presented for the first time by the Pinault Collection in the inaugural exhibition at the Bourse de Commerce, entitled "Ouverture".