The Pastels

Mannerheim Gallery is proud to present Charles Derenne’s exhibition «THE PASTELS», following his first solo show «BURN BABY BURN», on October 2016. With these interlacements of soft colored flat areas Charles Derenne happily enjoys himself with the codes of abstract painting. The American reference is never far and it is renewed here by the convocation of tutelary figures such as Cy Twombly and Clyfford Still. It is also music that, as is often the case with the artist, is at the origin of these «pastel» paintings. We can find here the clear and felted tones of «Nothing but sounds», experimental album released recently with Melody Syndrome.
LEATHERS AND MELONS
a future portrait of Charles Derenne
«You remember a few years back, I think it was 2017, 2017 it was. And you and I were bored and sober?
How things have changed, heh-heh-heh-heh?
And everything, as usual was closing earlier and earlier, in every arrondissement we went, everywhere we went.
So you invited a few us back to your place near le marché des enfants rouges (what a sweet name for such a terrible history, no?)
I can’t remember the names of who was there actually, even though I was more sober than you(sual).
There was a general gloom at the 2017 Paris FIAC. The feeling was that the end of art was inevitable but fashion was everywhere. A ‘black hole’ was opening in art history so to say. I remember you told me that you wanted to make a kind of a survey, a survey for sure, among our colleagues about the future of art and music. You invited us back to your place. There was a single camera in the room and the question was delicately, sweetly drafted on the table: directly onto the table, no paper required. Our colleagues only had to turn on the camera when they were ready to give their solitary answers. Everyone was there goddammit! But what was the question, Charles?
I never saw the tape, since I only use 35mm or digital formats, but I remember you said “Some have answered the question very extensively, others were unsettled by the situation and remained silent, we then cut those out...” Charles, who, who, who was cut out?
What was the question? And what happened next?»
Douglas Gordon
Charles Derenne (born in 1982) is a painter, performer, musician, and multimedia artist. For his art performances Charles Derenne has collaborated with major contemporary artists like Douglas Gordon, Larry Clark, or Christian Rosa who participated in the slow process of creating his own universe; a universe in which one may also run into Agnes b.
His musical project “1982” is taking off this year. This project was initiated three and a half years ago. During those three years the musician has done many live performances at MOMA PS1, New Museum (NY), MAK (Vienne), at the Venice biennial, or at Art Basel. He just finished recording his new album entitled “Extinct Species”, on which he collaborated with Salem and Raymond Pettibon who did the album cover (the last album cover Pettibon signed was for Sonic Youth’s album “GOO” in 1990). The first EP will be out in November and the album release is scheduled for 2018. The artist has also composed the score for a ballet with the Campana brothers and the choreographer Karole Armitage. He directs films about architecture like “A Concrete Life” which is available on Nowness. Charles Derenne presented his exhibition “Thanks for the Memories” at the Yvon Lambert bookshop. Pieces made out of texts written with a typewriter on craft paper while he was travelling the world: Los Angeles, St Petersburg, London, Malaga, Toronto... and which describe very acutely the artist’s surroundings, his day-to-day life, his vision of art and music.