Absolute Sine

Exploring sound and the organic world within it, the work of Geneva artist Alexandre Joly (France, 1977) combines sculpture and sound installations, often creating in situ works that explore, through the senses, the aesthetic and spiritual relationships that man maintains with nature. Trained in ceramics at the School of Decorative Arts, then at HEAD, both in Geneva, Alexandre Joly has long been interested in the creation of sound through different vibration transmission processes.

The Absolute Sine series, whose name refers to sine waves, was begun in 2004 and consists of vibrating speakers that generate sound frequencies, which sculpt the surface of black-tinted water. For this version, Alexandre Joly used a salvaged wooden boat that was left on the banks of the Doubs River. Inside, the mirror of black water vibrates, and its depths seem to both inspire us and suck us in. Absolute Sine — La barque is a hypnotic vision of a landscape in which the stream is contained within the boat. The boat appears as a vessel to the afterlife but above all as a means for contemplation in which emotion is driven by the imagination of a sound visible on the surface and whose volume transports us to another place. If his approach to sound calls for thoughtful and sensitive listening here, the artist also wants to convey the feeling of a changing state. It allows him to construct a different world in which visitors can contemplate this boat freely and lose themselves in the timeless, floating, meditative, organic and natural space it creates.

Exhibited in 2009 at MBAL, for Alexandre Joly’s first personal exhibition,Absolute Sine – La barque became part of the museum collection in 2011. Through this acquisition, MBAL wanted to promote the work of a contemporary artist, whose undeniable talent places him at the forefront of the Swiss and international art scene. The artist is represented by Galerie Rosa Turetsky in Geneva, Galerie Römerapotheke in Zurich and Galerie Patinoire Royale – Valérie Bach in Brussels.