Between fertility or sterility, functional or simulacrum, nature or artifice, the works of Xolo Cuintle unfold like the draft of fiction, as many possible narratives of a world locked in a gray zone of tension.
The PB PROJECT is delighted to welcome the artist duo Xolo Cuintle (Romy Texier and Valentin Vie Binet) for the exhibition “Sequel to 1450°C”.
Enthusiasts of concrete sculptures, the entity Xolo Cuintle, formed by Romy Texier and Valentin Vie Binet, strives to hybridize references, eras and spatialities. Through their petrified aesthetic, where forms seem frozen by the ashes of Vesuvius, a strange landscape unfolds in the exhibition space; the viewer, faced with this new archaeology, cannot determine whether it leans towards the archaic or the futuristic.
For the duo, everything starts with a script, a scenario, that takes root in the location they invest. The utility of the space, its peculiarities, allow them to develop resonances and provide a starting point for the narrative. In the space of the PB Project, a meta-gallery model of the site resonates with bas-reliefs presented at the 1450°C exhibition at Art-o-rama in 2023.
The narrative dimension is central to our practice. To invent our stories, we delve into current events, mythology, science fiction… we blur all these references. And our sculptures tell all of that. — Romy Texier
Similar to sequences or pieces of a storyboard, their vocabulary of grain silos, fields, and corn cobs refers to several climatic events. The storm that hit the Sahara in 2022 and caused clouds of pink sand in Europe; the story of the Dust Bowl, when in the 1930s the public authorities of the American Midwest pushed farmers to overexploit land with new industrial and intensive methods, causing a social and environmental catastrophe; or more broadly, the sight of these fields, yellowed and burned during periods of drought and extreme heat.
The temperature of 1450°C is the one that must be reached to form clinker during the manufacture of cement: a finely ground mixture of limestone, clay, and sand, subjected to the effects of heat and then suddenly cooled.
It also corresponds to the sum of temperatures to which a cornfield is exposed before reaching maturity. Two industries linked by the same lexical field – the mill and the silo, the flour and the dust -, two massive, impactful, and polluting productions
Concrete became prominent early in our practice. In fact, this material has always been present. It is interesting both in terms of its plasticity and, on a more democratic level, due to its accessibility. However, at the same time, this material has a very strong ecological footprint. Ultimately, it is also a material from which we cannot escape, as in urban environments, it constitutes our surroundings (…) It is closely tied to a sterility that we are interested in juxtaposing with a fertility of forms and a resilient nature. It is a paradoxical, ambiguous material.
— Valentin Vie Binet in Figure Figure n° 61
There is an archaeological dimension through concrete in its way of standardizing our installations. Thomas Maestro, a curator with whom we are currently working, has developed a very interesting idea in this regard to discuss our work. The idea suggests that concrete, due to its excessive use since the past century, could become the primary geological component.
— Romy Texier in Figure Figure n°61
Xolo Cuintle questions a resilient nature and the possibility of breaking cycles, contrary to this lying dog whose figure spans eras and civilizations. It is then a question of what will survive time.
Extract from the Press Release
It is this ambiguity, this in-between, this gray zone of tension that interests us.
— Xolo Cuintle
Catalogue of Works
BIOGRAPHY
Xolo Cuintle is an artist duo formed in 2020 by Romy Texier (1995, San Francisco) and Valentin Vie Binet (1996, Paris), who live in Paris and work in POUSH, Aubervilliers. After graduating from the Ecole Duperré, the duo entered a residency at the Manufacture des Gobelins (2019-2020, Paris) as part of a program with the Mobilier National.