"Take those tech things, those objects you are all very familiar with. The screens, the keyboardsw, the smartphones - but also all the things within those things - the codes, the chats, the emails, the files.The stories.
How much of you is in there?
The body of work that Damien Petitot created over the past 20 years explores with impressive consistency a number of media, topics, habits and thoughts that are woven together in a coherent weft that at times lets some threads emerge, at times others, in a seamlessness that simply makes sense.
With a genuine curiosity for the processes of utilisation and a distinct sensibility, Damien turns aways from the orthodoxy of orderly steps only to favour a self-learner approach, a detour in the purpose of how-things-should-be-done."
Full text by Camilla Colombo >>> here
B. 1982 in Cambrai (France)
Lives and works in Brussels
Damien Petitot trained at the ART2 school, in the IDM© workshop directed by Jean-François Octave.
Since then, he has been working as a visual artist and articulates his artistic approach around questions related to screens and their content, in particular by seizing the medium of video and broadcasting or projection devices.
He likes to misuse and hack technical devices (cameras, smartphones, computers, monitors, etc.) and plays with integrating his own data (chats, photographs, videos, etc.). He thus creates installations where technology recycles the intimate, performances where error and randomness are to be considered as generators of fictions and visual experiences.
In addition to this personal approach, he also collaborates as a video-performer with various artists working in the fields of theatre, music and performance such as Lucille Calmel, Mathias Varenne, Gaëtan Rusquet, Daniel Linehan and Stéphane Kozik.
Damien Petitot has exhibited or performed in many places and festivals: BOZAR, Beursschouwburg, CC Jacques Franck, Propulse, La Balsamine, Les Tanneurs, l'L, XS /Théâtre National, Cinéma Nova, Botanique, Recyclart, Maison Folie /Mons2015 /Laboréales, VIA, City Sonics, Rockerill, Palais des Beaux-Arts de Charleroi, Dour Festival, Budakunstcentrum, Les Transardentes, Emulation, TAKT (BEL), Nordik Impakt, L'Hybride, Jerk-Off, Divan du monde, Ateliers de Paris CDCN (FRA), Pépinières Européennes (HUN), Hall of Fame (NLD), Puertas de Castilla (ESP), ImpulsTanz (AUT), Usine C (CAN), Matucana 100 (CHL)
CURRICULUM
EDUCATION
Multimedia Theater. Workshop with Agrupación Señor Serrano, CIFAS, Brussels [2015]
Video on stage. Workshop with Fred Vaillant, CECN, Mons [2010]
Sculpture workshop - Teacher: Lucia Bru - ACA Saint Gilles, Brussels [2006 - 2010]
Master in Arts - Teacher: Jean-François Octave - IDM© workshop - ARTS2, Mons [2000 - 2005]
TEACHING
Workshop "Soft screens soft skins soft" with Lucille Calmel - VideoVortex19 - Malta - [October 2019]
Workshop "Vjaying" - ARTS2 School of Art / IDM - Mons - Belgium [November 2018]
Workshop "Errormancy" with Pascale Barret - ERG - Brussels [December 2017]
Workshop "Vjaying & Modul8" - Centre d'Art Contemporain du Luxembourg Belge - St Hubert - Belgium [May 2015]
RESIDENCIES
Residency at IMAL - Brussels - Project "In-Depth" in collaboration with Gaëtan Rusquet [March & September 2021]
Frart/FNRS - Research residency " The animal, therefore I am " ( Lucille Calmel ) in Sète, France [April 2021]
Lab Gamerz - Aix-en-Provence - project "sansespace" (concept Lucille Calmel) [May 2018]
Méq/HTH - Montpellier - project "sansespace" (concept Lucille Calmel) [March 2018]
HQ Punctum / Mons2015 - Melbourne - project "SIGN UP" [March 2014]
Les Laboréales - Maison Folie, Mons - project "DATA.ME" [January 2013]
Resident at l'L Theater - Brussels - project "HOWL" (concept Mathias Varenne) [June 2013 - February 2018]
Residency Laboréales - Maison Folie, Mons - "Livescape" (concept Stephane Kozik) [Mai 2010]
PRIZES
Emulation Prize - project La Preuve (concept Mathias Varenne) - Liège [2014]
Selected for Youg Sculpture Prize - Liège [2008]
PUBLICATIONS
BilboK Magazine [February 2015]
40 Artistes Exhibition catalogue [September 2013]