Niels Trannois, Version Cue

A proposal and text by Oriane Emery & Jean-Rodolphe Petter

This is Niels Trannois' first solo exhibition in French-speaking Switzerland. A series of new works has been created specifically for this occasion, accompanying a new display of earlier works. He has collaborated with British composer Lauren Duffus, who has produced a mix designed specifically for the exhibition.

The title of the exhibition pays tribute to the many exchanges, collaborations, and encounters he has experienced between Paris, Berlin, and Switzerland. Version Cue was the name of a program developed by the software company Adobe that was discontinued in 2009. Its main function was to keep file revisions up to date between multiple users. A nonverbal relationship to representation and an ode to the influences of those near and far who silently pass through us and shape us.

Version Cue evokes fragility and vulnerability. The artist’s own fragility, experienced and asserted as a strength. That of his work, where porcelain, for example, at once extremely solid and delicate, challenges us on its function as a support, engraved by laser, then painted with oil. Semantic, material and spatial juxtaposition are omnipresent in Niels Trannois’ work. With a particular attraction to the object of the poster, accessible, exchangeable, brittle and aesthetically powerful by virtue of its popular character, he has recently designed multi-faceted works integrated into Plexiglas boxes. He likes to use the metaphor of a fungus or virus growing energetically in a given space, adapting to its environment. These boxes, like the one at the corner, create a point of concentration. A painting emerges or is generated, playing with the public and the two- dimensionality of the painting exhibition.

Several birds are represented in the exhibition. Symbolically, they mean a great deal to the artist, both in terms of their vulnerability to the impact of human activity on nature and their majesty as represented in the history of canonical art. Niels Trannois is influenced by the gracefulness of certain gestures, postures and the fluidity of clothing. He interprets and uses images of femininity such as the contemporary warrior he celebrates. Several emblematic pairs of heels are represented (Rick Owens SS15 and Julian Hakes), objects of fulfillment, of empowerment, creating a tension with the artist’s work. Finally, two monumental silicone sculptures occupy the entrance and the back of the exhibition space. A poetic and sensitive hymn to the artist’s position in society, they reveal a multitude of points that question our place, our perspectives, our identities, as well as the world and its transformations.

The project “Version Cue” was made possible thanks to the generous support of the Anne-Marie Schindler Stiftung, the Fondation Françoise Champoud, the Fonds cantonal d’art contemporain (FCAC), the City of Lausanne, and the Canton of Vaud.