One thousand meal trays – Stephane Berard

Mille plateaux-repas [One thousand meal trays]

2011, Le Vernet, Lou Passavous locality, VIAPAC contemporary art trail

The three picnic tables in larch wood must be considered as a sculpture that enables one to live the physical experience of slope, to get closer to the feeling of living in this landscape, of being part of the image. A humorous echo of tourism, this work is somewhere between a conception of tourism (one can eat lunch on tables) and topographical constraints (the land is a sloping mountainside). It is also intended to be playful. The participation of the visitor, the tourist, is indispensable for the work: fitted with a tray that has legs, he himself corrects the angle of the slope and feels the absurdity of eating “at a table” when one is in the mountains. These trays are available in the referent places* in Le Vernet.
*Referent places: the town hall and the “Lou Passavous” complex in Le Vernet

Born in Lille in 1966, Stéphane Bérard lives and works between the Alpes de Haute-Provence area and Paris. A Jack-of-all-trades, he works in artistic writing, drawing, photography, film, sculpture, installation, performance and even music. However, there are points in common between all his approaches and especially between their results: an economy of means, visual poverty and humour. Stéphane Bérard’s work invites our reactions and our biased views. In so doing, he gets us to take another look at what exists already, before our eyes, another look at the town, another look at the local area: what seemed natural is no longer natural, and what was previously taken for granted becomes surprising. Art can then no longer be separated from a critical vision.

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