PRESENTATION

Déstructuralisme Figuratif : deconstructing to reconstruct

Background

The DF ART PROJECT is an international artistic collective bringing together living visual artists, whether emerging or confirmed, who share a common vision of their art consisting in a fragmentation of what is real. This reality is put into perspective, distorted or dynamically transformed.

The DF ART PROJECT is a conceptualization of existing artistic practices throughout the world including painting, sculpture, photography, etching, drawing, collage, digital art, performance, installation and the performing arts.

The artists involved in the DF ART PROJECT seek to position themselves against a rising tide of individualism, where human exchange has given way to rampant loneliness. Their introspective approach focuses on analysis and multidimensional creation, where the surreal comes to the fore and where, more generally, new and less human, more virtual interactions are created.

These perceptions aim to reveal, through what could be called an optimistic rally cry, a situation, probably generational, of a globalized society in the throes of mutation – a society faced with an uncertain, ever changing future.

Through artistic creation, the DF ART PROJECT presents its considerations on a society where true possibilities for the emancipation of mankind as well as the independence of human imagination are being redefined.

A New Status for Mankind

It seems that humans and their activities are increasingly removed from their context, that is to say isolated from all groups of reference and more globally, from their actual environment, and instead, occupy a principally digital realm. In fact, we seem less and less concerned by meaningful human connection and instead, prefer instant, superficial exchange. This is why the status of mankind, its interactions with the surrounding environment, does indeed seem to have mutated.

Leaving Structuralism Behind

By taking one step further, we feel it is necessary to approach the analysis of humans and their activities in a more in-depth manner and in fact, this position is akin to that of an anthropologist.

The last important anthropological breakthrough to date was Claude Lévi-Strauss’ structuralism which emphasizes a series of elements, most of which are governed by a modelling approach. Seen through this prism, human beings, as individuals or members of a group, are integrated to three systems interacting amongst themselves: the family unit, economics and linguistics. 

The DF ART PROJECT wishes to reject this systemic approach when it comes to artistic expression and in this way, we aim to leave structuralism behind and shed new light on the way mankind is depicted.

Revisiting Figurative Points of Reference

We are targeting human representation through a focus on intimate, personal experiences and their accumulation, as well as a diversity of points of view relating to our time, the present.

In this context, the figurative is analyzed, all the better to rebuild it and confer new value upon this practice. Certain fragments are liberated from representation, others are clearly identified. Space, within its many dimensions, is pulled apart and recomposed.

This new representation of form manufactures unlikely, original and striking beings, objects, places and situations. The limits between what is real and what is imaginary are distorted, until they cancel each other out. In this way, artistic potential shines through and is highlighted thanks to paradoxical feelings of familiarity and strangeness.

Conclusion

The DF ART PROJECT was created in April 2019 on the initiative of Ronnie Jiang, a visual artist of Indonesian origin now living in Paris. She is also the president of French organization DF (Déstructuralisme Figuratif) which supports this initiative.

The founder of this project has adopted the notion of Déstructuralisme Figuratif expressing, on one hand, a will to free herself from a structuralist approach, and on the other, to revisit figurative elements of artistic expression.

Within this context, the DF ART PROJECT aims to re-enforce and promote a common vision of its artists through:

  • The development of practical exchanges and theoretical analysis;

  • The mutualization of promotion activities such as communication, events, lobbying, the search for funds, etc.

Finally, the DF ART PROJECT aims to emerge as a reference on the art market by making coherent work available, work grouped around an innovative artistic concept.