Octave Rimbert-Rivière cherishes matter. He worships it and coaxes it, flattering it as one caresses the flank of an animal that is gradually domesticated. Tenderly, he cultivates a fleshly relationship with it. And his growing interest in digital potential does not in any way virtualize his practice, which remains fiercely anchored in the tangible. It remains touching. It marries pottery and new technologies. For him, any creation is the product of collages. His clay is drawn from the depths of the dark web, and is smeared with fun, by hand. If the sculptor regularly visits the digital world — and we cannot insist enough on the tactile dimension of the term ‘digital’ — it is to experiment with the modelling that such a tool allows, as would a potter’s rib. The computer is a vector of distortion, a machine to hack an archetypal form. The artist transforms the glitch into porcelain, pouring electronic flux and liquid clay into molds. In turn, his mugs and teapots both contain and spill. The glazes ooze, crackle, split. They bubble too. There is no limit to the amount of crust they can produce, because in ceramics, it’s always firing. From this angry magma, it is a question of creating functional objects, which are truly useful. This unblocks them from the exhibition space, and after having exported them a first time from the screen, frees them even more to simply irrigate life, in a race towards the concrete. To escape plinths, to crack the codes, to break the boxes. The function liberates the work.
During the event “Curves of Inquiry” the online publication "Fellows Published 2021-2022" was festively launched. The process and findings of the fellows who conducted their research in 2021 and 2022 are made accessible here. Contributors are: Waèl el Allouche, Clementine Edwards, Jason Hendrik Hansma, Elia Kalogianni, Elisabeth Klement and Laura Pappa, Taylor Le Melle, María Mazzanti, Rachel 'O Reilly and Octave Rimbert-Rivière.
Take a look at the online publication here: fellowspublished.rietveldacademie.nl
Octave Rimbert Riviere was one of the nine fellows in the academic year 2021-2022. The interview below is published in the online publication “Fellows Published” that was launched in November 2023.
fellowspublished.rietveldacademie.nl
Curves of Inquiry is a Gerrit Rietveld Academie initiative that showcases the findings of nine artist-researchers who completed a fellowships trajectory in the previous academic year. Each of these projects is carried out in close collaboration with a department of the Rietveld Academie or Sandberg Instituut to foster relationships between educational programs, research activities, and societal issues.
Fellows Exhibit is a Rietveld Sandberg initiative that showcases the findings of nine artist-researchers who completed a fellowships trajectory in the past academic year.
Fellows Exhibit is a Rietveld Sandberg initiative that showcases the findings of nine artist-researchers who completed a fellowships trajectory in the past academic year. Each of these projects is carried out in close collaboration with a department of the Sandberg Instituut or the Rietveld Academie to foster relationships between educational programs, research activities, and societal issues.
Fellows Exhibit is a Rietveld Sandberg initiative that showcases the findings of nine artist-researchers who completed a fellowships trajectory in the past academic year. Each of these projects is carried out in close collaboration with a department of the Sandberg Instituut or the Rietveld Academie to foster relationships between educational programs, research activities, and societal issues. The exhibition shows work of Clementine Edwards, Laura Pappa & Elisabeth Klement, Jason Hendrik Hansma, María Mazzanti, Martino Morandi & Anita Burato, Octave Rimbert-Rivière, Rachel O'Reilly, Taylor le Melle, Wael el Allouche and Elia Kalogianni.
The research fellowship project is an initiative for artists, designers, theorists and other makers. It aims to facilitate and support short term artistic research projects, in collaboration with one of the departments of the schools. During the fellowship, the invited researchers share their process and findings with students and the Gerrit Rietveld community at large. The Fellows in Process series in particular aims to aid this interaction, while engendering meaningful conversations between the fellows, students and teachers of both institutes.