Prix Marcel Duchamp 2019

Tursic and Mille (born in 1974) revel in a jubilant exploration of the condition of the pictorial medium in the post-historic era. Whether cut-up, superimposed, placed against the walls, hanging from structures or positioned on pedestals, their painting-objects occupy space and impishly deny the primacy of two-dimensional representation in painting. In a Picabian vein, Tursic and Mille also contest the relevance of style. Reinterpreting the myth of the demiurge artist, they engage wholeheartedly in gestural abstraction, without however foregoing figuration. Central to their work, which is based on the appropriation of images produced by "show culture": abolishing all forms of hierarchy between subjects and sources, their recycling processes deal indifferently with pornographic and domestic themes drawn from the internet or from films d'auteur.

The preliminary cut-up of the pictorial base plays a predominant role in the work proposed for the Prix Marcel Duchamp prize 2019. The outline of the wooden base mirrors that of the objects represented - lapdog survivors of a neo-pop past, a larger-than-life young Adonis wearing nothing but a hat, but also exaggeratedly large blobs of paint, fetishistic elements from the painter's mythology and studio. One on top of the other, playing with scale effects, these decor-paintings form a sort of stage whereon the "drama" of contemporary painting is acted out.

By Nicolas Liucci-Goutnikov
Curator, Musée National d'Art Moderne, Centre Pompidou, Curator of the exhibition, In Code couleur n°35, september-december 2019, p. 32-35