Bernar Venet

Indeterminate Line

2016

Cor-ten steel
650 x 740 x 650cm

The processes of production is the governing principle behind the Lignesin déterminées (Indeterminate Lines) that made their appearance in Bernar Venet’s work from 1979. “My sculptures are all about how they are made and how metal resists. They’re a test of strength, a battle between the piece of metal and me.It’s a question of “who makes do what” to the other, a struggle between the artist’s will and the rigid nature of the laminated bar. […] I suggest which direction to go, but I am guided by the metal bar, which resists me and will not yield to my desire for domination. There’s an interplay of concessions, I have to let the bar remain autonomous. The result is a testimonial both to the act of forging and to the possibilities of a material which I do not change beyond the limits of its natural characteristics”. Bernar Venet