Discussion about Anne-James Chaton's new monograph
"I have the solution for the planet" is dedicated to the plastic works of the artist realized between 2003 and 2022.
This interview was made in French.
Anne-James Chaton is a writer. That's what people say about him most often. His writings have been published since 2001 by Al Dante, Verticales, and since 2019 by P.O.L. He is also a musician and performer, and has been crossing the landscapes of experimental sound poetry for several years. However, Anne-James Chaton is also a visual artist. His production has always been more discreet than his literary works, even though the fields of experimentation are the same, since it is always about writing.
I have the solution for the planet, published by Daisy Editions, takes stock of this production and brings together for the first time eighteen series of works produced between 2003 and 2022. The series are deliberately scattered throughout the book, thwarting any attempt at a purely chronological or thematic reading, as each series is linked to another, and the repetition of some of them produces an effect of saturation that is essential for immersing oneself in the work. The central principle of the presentation of the works was to avoid reproducing them systematically. Even if some of them have a definitive physical materiality, others find here a new form, specific to the printed page.
The works are accompanied by notes written by Anne-James Chaton. Like rules of composition, they explain the appearance and functioning of each series. The book is punctuated by three unpublished texts by editor and writer Frédéric Boyer, art historian and critic Jo Melvin, and Emmanuel Tibloux, director of Ensad (École nationale supérieure des arts décoratifs), and ends with an interview between Carsten Nicolai and Anne-James Chaton conducted in the spring of 2022.