Pierre Bismuth

Pierre Bismuth (6 June 1963) is a French artist and filmmaker. His practice can be placed in the tradition of conceptual art and appropriation art. His work uses a variety of media and materials, including painting, sculpture, collage, video, architecture, performance, music, and film. He is best known for being among the authors of the story for Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, for which he won the Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay alongside Michel Gondry and Charlie Kaufman. Bismuth made his directorial debut with the 2016 feature film Where is Rocky II?.

Early life Pierre Bismuth was originally a visual communication student at les Arts Décoratifs. He met François Miehe there, one of his teachers, with whom he subsequently collaborated on several projects. In the 1980s Pierre Bismuth moved to Berlin where he attended Georg Baselitz's class of the Hochschule der Kunst. When he returned to France, he settled in Paris where he shared a studio with Xavier Veilhan and Pierre Huyghe. In 2000, he moved to London, prompted by the Lisson Gallery, where he has had several exhibitions since then.

Bismuth often plays with the film industry imagery, as in his Jungle Book Project where he uses the different translations of the famous Disney film to create a new Babel like environnement. He is also known for following the movement of actors and actresses hands during a full movie and reproducing these as drawings. Moreover, the re-use of the famous words "The End" or "Coming Soon" featured in movies or trailers is also a recurrent work. "Coming Soon" is featured as a permanent public luminous art work in Geneva.

Collaborations

A striking aspect of Bismuth's artistic practice consists in his collaborations with other artists from the most various fields. He notably collaborated with Michel Gondry, Jerome Bel, Jonathan Monk, Dessislava Dimova, Diego Perone, Barbara Visser, Angus Fairhurst, Cory Arcangel, , Mathias Faldbakken or Joe Strummer.

Exhibitions (selection)

Galleries Pierre Bismuth is represented by the following galleries: Jan Mot, Bruxelles Galerie Bugada & Cargnel, Paris Christine König Galerie, Vienne He has among others also exhibited at the Galerie Yvon Lambert in Paris, at the Lisson Gallery in London, at Sonia Rosso in Turin, at Roger Pailhas in Marseille and also at Mary Boone in New-York.

Notes and references