Darren Roshier and the far° entered into a partnership for a period of approximately two years (2015-2017). The aim is to support his creative work, provide him with new research tools and offer him greater exposure. This support includes meetings and follow-up sessions with the far° team, as well as think-tanks that foster research and creation. In conjunction with the artist’s approach, leading figures from different professional backgrounds (writers, philosophers, art historians, anthropologists, etc.) are invited to these meetings and think-tanks to share their expert input.
Darren Roshier’s artistic and political commitment in Vevey, where he lives, immediately appealed to us. We saw it as a reflection of the approach we have developed in Nyon and as a starting point for a long-term partnership. To describe his work, the artist has mentioned his interest in the “framework”, the format, as raw material to create content. However, it’s worth looking into his career path to get a more precise idea of his artistic endeavour. After graduating with a Bachelor’s degree in visual arts from the Valais School of Arts (ECAV), Roshier joined the RATS Collective, which organises various cultural events, such as artist-in-residencies, exhibitions, concerts, conferences, and so on. His involvement with local associations attracted the attention of local politicians who asked him to join the town council in Vevey. He then went on to join several committees, where he learnt to better understand the system. The inspiration for Darren Roshier’s artistic work comes precisely from this multiplicity of roles. Like so many fractured identities, he proudly asserts his three-way role. The politician focuses on the political system ; the curator focuses on the exhibition’s format; and the artist focuses on how his status is represented: the message, the image, the success and the failure, the career, the history, and even the way he creates his own myth. In concrete terms, he methodically explores everything that constitutes an artistic event: the unveiling, the exhibition, the genealogy, the modalities of presentation, the archival, etc. He actually seems capable of extending this analysis to any cultural, political and, more broadly, daily event. He adds to this a burlesque dimension, which is based on temporal and contextual shifts. Roshier also savours embedded narratives and mise-en-abyme, as well as the inconsistencies that these might highlight when they come together. If ecology can be defined as “the study of the interrelationships of organisms with their environment and each other”, then Darren Roshier’s work might be seen as developing a form of cultural and artistic ecology.
Presented at far° :
2015 : Tentative d'une entrée réussie
2016 : Sollicitation à la rassemblée inhabituelle
2017 : Le langage dessiné de l'idée
2018 : La parabole de tout à l'heure (in french only)
2019 : Perf en bref · lecture performance
