The Zeer Module, the matrix of Mehdi Cibille’s work, develops by endlessly replicating the possible. This viral dynamic of form constitutes the subject of an experimental and self-referential work, which mischievously tackles all media and surfaces, always surprising the person who encounters its intricacies. Mehdi Cibille explores the enormity of the imaginable duplications of his Module in a space of multiple dimensions. From the logo to the logos, the expanded graphic design speaks without end, like a language governed by its own reason—a performative statement that deploys its own effectiveness. The Module invites us to apprehend the determinisms that grip our subjectivity, the mechanisms that trap us and reduce us to the condition of an object.
Immersive experience at the heart of the Zeer Module
The artist sometimes pushes the confrontation to the extreme, as he was able to do in Vannes (Dédale) where he presented in 2020 a three-dimensional modular sculpture by Zeer in a White Cube, a piece in which each spectator undergoes an immersive experience that places them at the heart of the gears of the system. The space is saturated with the proliferation of the Module that emerges from the ground towards the authors, spreading out across the horizons of perspectives through a complexity of branches that rely on material (wooden column, grating, foam), like an insatiable living organism that metabolizes everything in its passage. This monumental and radical version of Zeer’s Module is still visible today and the installation deserves a detour through this place dedicated to urban cultures, Dédale as well as Des Expériences Des Artistes Lieu Éphémère, an urban project in the ruins of a former administrative building of the region.
A modular game in constant expansion
Although the questions raised by Mehdi Cibille’s artistic work are essential ones that concern our subjectivity and our human specificity in a world where the symbolic function tends to be displaced by the grip of a digital and mechanical order, in which functioning is the ideal, regardless of meaning and desire, the artist nevertheless approaches them with great derision, through a form that remains a playful proposition. Mehdi Cibille renews his work by giving the Module scope by exploiting new modes of duplication of this matrix-like graphic: a search that is both aesthetic and semantic because fundamentally, this module unfolds a singular and meaningful visual discourse.
From urban art to meaningful aesthetic research
A new direction is given to the monochrome canvas module when the form is revealed through its texture and relief. Mehdi Cibille is very attached to urban art, which is the origin of his work, and continues to associate his work with materials collected from the public space. He thus integrates new components, brought from the outside, into the work, as much as elements that bear witness to lives and events that renew the consistency of the Module. In recent experiments, the artist has been able to use silica and fine sand collected in Nîmes, where he lives. The grains of sand bring a roughness that perhaps is the disruptive element in the mechanical drive of the frenzied expansion dynamics of this Module; a roughness that humanizes the matrix perfection? Does this accumulation of sand grains remind us of our strength as individuals in the face of what transcends us and determines us? A way for the artist to introduce life and its marks, the passage of time and wear and tear, the cycle of elements, and the specificity of social bonds—in a way that will inevitably lead to the impasse of the extensive deployment of standardized and dehumanized processes and protocols. In Mehdi Cibille’s approach, the contribution of these elements from the external space common to the workshop-based creation is a way to anchor art in reality. This quest for the collision between the Module and the material is also what drives the motif and form. In this creative drive, the artist intends to turn more towards sculpture, which opens up the perspectives of this combinatorial search between matter, volume, and form.
Takashi, 2020
Acrylic and silica on canvas
Unique work, signed
H100 x L100 cm
Margaret, 2021
Acrylic and silica on canvas
Unique work, signed
H100 x L100 cm
Bringing Art and Science Together or the Political Implications of the Zeer Module
In 2015, Mehdi Cibille created a monumental painting (100 meters x 10 meters) at the Maison du Peuple in Clichy, using all the tools and materials available on the street. This building, emblematic of the city and illustrating the political action of the Popular Front, had been classified as a historical monument in 1983. This innovative construction of metal and sliding glass designed by architects Eugène Beaudouin and Marcel Lods, in partnership with the Jean Prouvé workshops in the 1930s, was declassified and handed over to the private domain shortly after the construction of the Module de Zeer. The Maison du Peuple was declassified and handed over to the private domain shortly after the completion of the Zeer Module, a decision that sparked numerous controversies fueled by a number of aborted projects, including one tower envisioned by architect Rudy Riccioti. In 2022, the renovation was finally entrusted by the city and the Ministry of Culture to the Alain Ducasse group to create a concept celebrating the art of living and culinary craftsmanship… For several months in 2015, Mehdi Cibille had invested the premises and transformed the abandoned ruin that had become this House of the People into a monumental workshop to deploy this Module, also driven by an utopia: that of the union of art and science, of why and how, to broaden our horizons and sublimate progress.
The Module extension: the logistics workshops
In order to open his tireless and inexhaustible work on the Module to other applications that extend its meaning, Mehdi Cibille imagined a logology workshop that is part of the lineage of abstraction practiced by Jean Dubuffet, both aesthetic, playful and ironic, questioning language and its forms. The idea is that each form is a complete universe and contains a discursive message. The logo unfolds the logos: what discourse carries the form? The idea is to make the abstract generate meaning, and this inseparable articulation between discourse and form, Mehdi Cibille questions it in his workshops offered in schools, universities, large schools, and institutions. Each participant is invited to create an abstract form from three ideas attached to three forms. For Mehdi Cibille, art is not just an aesthetic; it also serves a function: providing the keys to understanding what surrounds us, beyond certainties and closed explanations. Art allows us to perceive the ambiguity of meaning and this is what protects us from totalitarianism. That is why the artist opens his reflection around the Module, beyond metaphysics, to the world as it is, as it is going, in all its manifestations.
The Zeer Module in Japan
Currently, the Zeer Module travels through Japan, seemingly the only entity capable of bypassing the borders of a desperately closed world – the artist remaining subject to the restrictions of a circulation that was thought to be free… The resonance of the Module’s viral replication dynamics in the oppressive world of self-isolation and the marginalization of social life is quite astounding. The work travels the world; the artist remains confined to his home. It is the collector Agnès B who invited Mehdi to present his work with a traveling exhibition in Japan, in the galleries associated with his boutiques. First exhibited in Tokyo, the drawings, paintings and works on wood panels by Mehdi Cibille will soon move to Kyoto. The exhibition is titled Persévérance, a nod to the «module» that landed on the planet Mars; it also refers to the science that inspires the artist’s work, as progress transforms what was once science fiction or a dream into a dizzying hubris of the present.
The graffiti movement, from the avant-garde to retrospectives
The fashion designer had noticed the appearances of the Module de Zeer works in the streets of Paris before inviting him to collaborate on fashion shows or to create installations that contribute to the design of her boutiques.
One can discover a work by Mehdi Cibille among those by artists from the urban art scene at the FAB of Agnès B during the Graffiti collective exhibition marking the 50th anniversary of the designer’s art collection. Throughout the autumn, the FAB celebrates this movement for which Agnès B has shown a particular interest and which has decisively marked her collecting career. Graffiti invades all the spaces of the FAB and its urban surroundings, including Jean-Michel Basquiat Square in the 13th arrondissement of Paris – a neighborhood that is now emerging and being revitalized by numerous artistic projects – for a gratifying retrospective that proves, if it were needed, that graffiti continues to arouse a great deal of enthusiasm. A book, Sur nos murs, 40 ans de graffiti avec Agnès B, is published in support of this event (Editions Textuel). It brings together about sixty graffitists supported by this avant-garde creator and collector who discovered the pioneers of the movement in 1970s New York and then in 1980s Paris, and who will remain faithful to the pioneers while also helping to reveal the new talents who perpetuate the rebellious spirit of graffiti today, including Mehdi Cibille.
Hatchikian Gallery presents a selection of works by Mehdi Cibille
Both figurative and abstract, the Module by Zeer is imbued with an energy that endlessly reconfigures our lines of perception. Whether it escapes us or captivates us, it leads us into a bewildering game, which only seems playful because it raises serious questions, as is the case with human tribulations, both ridiculous and serious.
Hatchikian Gallery is pleased to present a selection of works by Medhi Cibille aka Le Module de Zeer as Zone Expérimentale d’Expression Relative, an artist who has always been present in the collection and gallery career of Audrey Hatchikian. Discover the most recent works by Mehdi Cibille in our Art Loft, where we present exhibitions that bring together different artists to bring artistic exchanges to life.
OXX, 2017
Acrylic on canvas
Unique work, signed
H50 x L150 cm
