Born in 1938 in Istanbul, Turkey, Sarkis has been living and working in Paris since 1964.<\/p>\n
In\u00a0Colors in Water<\/i>, Sarkis introduces a modest yet profoundly symbolic installation: a simple circular wooden table on which bowls are carefully arranged. These vessels become sites of quiet transformation, where Sarkis\u2019 \u201cAngels\u201d \u2014 assistants or spiritual intermediaries \u2014 pour colors into water, generating a delicate, ever-shifting spectrum of translucent hues. These ephemeral color fields, born during a series of workshops, embody the \u201cinfinite fractions of light\u201d that emerge from collaborative acts of creation. The resulting works are not confined to the studio; they are transferred to a secondary site \u2014 a\u00a0Shrine<\/i>\u00a0\u2014 where they continue to resonate, joining disparate locations and communities in a shared ritual of color, memory, and presence.<\/p>\n
<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n Sarkis studied French, painting and interior design before moving to Paris in 1964. In 1967, he won the Biennale of Paris Painting Prize. The same year, Sarkis exhibited\u00a0Connaissez- vous Joseph Beuys ?<\/i>\u00a0at the Salon de Mai in reference to the German artist he considers to be the most important of our time. In 1969, he was invited by art critic Harald Szeemann to take part in the now famous exhibition\u00a0When attitudes become form<\/i>\u00a0at the Kunsthalle of Bern. Since he also deeply cares about transfer of knowledge, he ran the art department of the School of Decorative Arts of Strasbourg from 1980 to 1990, and worked as a seminar director at the Institut des Hautes Etudes en Arts Plastiques (IHEAP) created by Pontus Hulten from 1988 to 1995. He participates in reference exhibitions such as\u00a0Documentas VI<\/i>\u00a0and\u00a0VII<\/i>\u00a0(Germany), and the Biennales of Venice (Italy), Sydney (Australia), Shanghai (China), S\u00e3o Paulo (Brazil), Moscow (Russia) and Istanbul (Turkey). In 2015 he represented the Turkish Pavilion at the 56th Venice Biennale, and in the same year participated in the Republic of Armenia exhibition which won the Golden Lion.<\/p>\n Sarkis’ work has benefited from many important solo and group exhibitions, notably in 2021 at the Mus\u00e9e du Quai Branly with the exhibition\u00a0Ex Africa<\/i>\u00a0curated by Philippe Dagen, at the Chapelle de la Visitation (Thonon-les-Bains) in 2019, at the Mus\u00e9e de F\u00e9camp (F\u00e9camp), at the Couvent des Cordeliers (Toulouse) in 2018 and at the Petit Palais (Paris) in 2016. In 2015, he had a solo exhibition at the Boghossian Foundation in Brussels, and exhibited the same year at MAXXI in Rome. In 2013, Sarkis participated in\u00a0When attitudes become form, Bern 1969\/Venice 2013<\/i>\u00a0for the 55th edI\u0307tion of the Venice Biennale at the Prada Foundation, and took part in\u00a0Ici, Ailleurs<\/i>\u00a0on the occasion of Marseille – Provence, European Capital of Culture, as well as the exhibition\u00a0Modernity? Perspectives from France and Turkey<\/i>, at the Istanbul Modern. Invited by the Boijmans van Beuningen Museum in Rotterdam in 2012, he presented\u00a0Ballads<\/i>\u00a0in the 5 000 m2 of the Submarine Wharf and exhibited the same year at the Triennial with\u00a0Intense Proximit\u00e9<\/i>\u00a0at the Palais de Tokyo. In 2011, he exhibited at the MAMCO (Geneva) with a major retrospective entitled\u00a0H\u00f4tel Sarkis<\/i>. In 2010, Sarkis presents\u00a0Passages<\/i>\u00a0at the Centre Pompidou (Paris) where Sarkis’ creations enter into conversation with the works of Malevitch, Breton or Beuys. In 2007, he was present at the Bourdelle Museum, the Louvre Museum and the Maison Rouge (Paris), the Picasso Museum (Paris) in 2003, the Museum of Contemporary Art in Lyon, the Museum of Modern Art in C\u00e9ret, the \u00c9cole Nationale Sup\u00e9rieure des Beaux-Arts in Paris in 2002, the CAPC in Bordeaux in 2000 and 1976, the Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art in Strasbourg in 1998 and 1988, the Museum of Fine Arts in Nantes in 1997, at the Magasin de Grenoble in 1991, the \u00c9cole Nationale Sup\u00e9rieure des Arts D\u00e9coratifs de Limoges in 1986, the Nouveau Mus\u00e9e de Villeurbanne in 1985, the ARC – Mus\u00e9e d’Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris in 1984, the Mus\u00e9e d’Art et d’Industrie de Saint-\u00c9tienne in 1974, the Mus\u00e9e Galliera (Paris) in 1973, and the Mus\u00e9e d’Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris in 1970 with Christian Boltanski.<\/p>\n Sarkis’s works are featured in many internationally-renowned public collections in France and abroad, such as the Landes Museum (Germany), the Boijmans van Beuningen Museum (Netherland), the MAMCO (Switzerland), the Museu Serralves (Portugal), the Istanbul Modern (Turkey), the ZKM (Germany); the Pompidou Center, the City of Paris Museum of Modern Art, the Museum of the Castle of the Dukes of W\u00fcrttemberg, the Museum of Modern Art of Saint-\u00c9tienne, the Museums of the City of Strasbourg, the CAPC of Bordeaux, the Museum of Contemporary Art of Lyon, the MAC\/VAL, the Fine Arts Museum of Nantes, the LAM, the Castle of Chaumont-sur-Loire, the IAC of Villeurbanne\/Rh\u00f4ne-Alpes, the FRAC of Loire, Poitou- Charentes, Brittany, Alsace, Auvergne, Lorraine, Aquitaine, Franche-Comt\u00e9, Languedoc- Roussillon, Nord-Pas-de-Calais, Ile-de-France, the CNAP as well as the Departmental Collection of Seine-Saint-Denis (France).<\/p>\n Sarkis has been represented by la Galerie Nathalie Obadia, Paris\/Brussels, since 2011.<\/p>\n Colors in Water is commissioned by Beppu Project NPO. It is part of the inaugural Beppu Contemporary Art Festival: Mixed Bathing World Triennale in Oita, Japan. The project was produced by Junya Yamaide and directed by Serizawa Takashi with Keith Whittle, who served as advisor and assistant director.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"