Silicone sleeve, wire, boiler, stainless steel pipes, cast iron radiator, mechanisms, variable dimensions
Work acquired in 2017

Born in Geneva (Switzerland) in 1987, Bastien Gachet lives and works in Geneva.

Bastien Gachet’s practice is based on the principles of duration and transformation that aim to create a direct and personal relationship between the viewer and the work. Engaged with the mechanisms of the gaze, it may be divided into two main axes: a sculptural practice intended on the one hand for the “white cube” and which employs that space’s codes and uses; and on the other hand, a practice intended for an everyday space that can blend into the domestic sphere. While providing formal proposals adapted to these different phenomenological conditions, the approach is nevertheless an intentionally identical one.

Keep On Dancing Francis, Keep On Dancing Elisabeth and Keep On Dancing Daniel are the three constitutive elements of the same installation featuring familiar domestic items: a silicone plug, a boiler with a hot water tank and a cast iron radiator. These seemingly innocuous elements are connected by stainless steel pipes to mechanisms that make them move almost imperceptibly: the boiler tilts slightly; the plug attempts to regain its balance; and the sections of the radiator come apart to create a wave effect. All of these effects, both comical and disturbing, weighted with poetic and choreographic dimensions, may well lead the spectator to imagine that they are either the result of an inexperienced plumber or electrician or excerpts from a cartoon-like universe.

Keep On Dancing Francis, Elisabeth, Daniel continues the tradition of mechanical sculpture, and notably follows on from the work of Swiss plastic artist Jean Tinguely (1925-1991), who from the 1950s onwards built a series of machine-sculptures with aggressive, loud and eccentric movements. But, unlike the works of his compatriot, Bastien Gachet privileges slowness and discretion so as to better surprise viewers and challenge their perception.

For this work, Bastien Gachet was selected by the Kiefer Hablitzel Stiftung Swiss Art Awards in 2017.