Antoine Schmitt
As a visual artist, Antoine Schmitt creates works in the form of objects, installations and situations to deal with the processes of movement and question the intrinsic issues, whether of a plastic, philosophical or social nature. Heir to kinetic art and cybernetic art, nourished by metaphysical science fiction, he tirelessly questions the dynamic interactions between human nature and the nature of reality. Originally a programming engineer in human-machine relations and artificial intelligence, he now places the programme – a contemporary artistic material unique in its active quality – at the heart of his creations, revealing and literally manipulating the forces at work. With a precise and minimal aesthetic, he raises the question of movement, its causes and its forms. Antoine Schmitt has also undertaken to link this approach to more established artistic fields such as dance, music, film, architecture and literature, and has collaborated with Franck Vigroux, Atau Tanaka, Vincent Epplay, Jean-Jacques Birgé, Delphine Doukhan, K. Danse, Patrice Belin, Don Nino, Cubenx, Alberto Sorbelli, Matthew Bourne, Hortense Gauthier… As a theorist, lecturer and editor of the gratin.org portal, he explores the field of programmed art.
His work has won several prizes at international festivals: transmediale (Berlin, second prize 2007, honorary 2001), Ars Electronica (Linz, second prize 2009), UNESCO International Festival of Video-Dance (Paris, first prize online 2002), Vida 5. 0 (Madrid, honorary 2002), CYNETart (Dresden, honorary 2004), medi@terra (Athens, first prize 1999), Interférences (Belfort, first prize 2000), and has been exhibited at the Centre Georges Pompidou, the Musée des Arts Décoratifs (Paris), Sonar (Barcelona), Ars Electronica (Linz), the Centre d’Art Contemporain de Sienne, the Musée d’Art Contemporain de Lyon, and the Nuits Blanches (Paris, Amiens, Metz, Brussels and Madrid), among others. He is part of the collections of the Artphilein (CH), Fraenkel (USA), Meeschaert (FR), Société Générale (FR), Broich (DE) foundations, the Espace Gantner (Bourogne, FR), the Cube (Issy-Mx, FR), the Fond Municipal d’Art Contemporain (FMAC) in Paris, the Borusan collection (USA), etc.
Antoine Schmitt is represented by Galerie Charlot (Paris) and DAM Projects (Berlin). Antoine Schmitt lives and works in Paris and Angoulême.
