Damien Bénéteau, 'Variations in Variations' - Fondation Vasarely, 2022-2023. Picture Courtesy of Damien Bénéteau. © Buysse Gallery. All rights reserved.
Damien Bénéteau, 'Variations in Variations' - Fondation Vasarely, 2022-2023
Date: 15/12/22 au 17/09/23
For over a decade, Damien Bénéteau has refined Variations, a body of work that explores the imperceptible forces shaping our experience of time and space. By combining mechanical precision, light, and movement, he distills these abstract concepts into sculptural forms that are both meditative and technically rigorous. The pendulum-a recurring motif-acts as a conduit for these ideas, its rhythmic oscillation transforming light and shadow into dynamic compositions.
For his project at the Fondation Vasarely, Bénéteau scaled up his practice to an architectural dimension. Suspended from an 11-meter ceiling, the installation transforms the principles of Variations into a monumental experience. A matte black sphere, autonomously driven by a magnetic system, swings steadily through a vertically cut steel plate illuminated from within. The dual surfaces of the plate-one matte, the other reflective-emphasize the sphere's silent passage, creating a subtle interplay of shadows and light that reshapes its contours mid-motion. At the point of alignment, the sculpture dissolves into an almost two-dimensional image, where volume momentarily becomes surface.
The absence of spectacle is deliberate. Bénéteau reduces the visual language to its essentials-light, form, and motion-crafting an environment of depth, solemnity, and focus. The slow, measured movement of the pendulum evokes the passage of time, recalling the function of the metronome as both a rhythmic guide and a symbol of temporal measurement. Yet here, time is not fixed; it stretches, contracts, and hovers in suspension. The viewer is drawn into a heightened awareness of time's dual nature-both physical and perceptual-as the installation quietly asserts its presence in a shared, lived moment.
Bénéteau's work reaffirms his dialogue with Kinetic Art and Op Art, movements that similarly elevated motion and perception as primary artistic concerns. His pendulum does not perform the rotations of Foucault's Earth-bound apparatus, but instead achieves a self-contained infinity-an autonomous movement that invites the viewer to reconsider their relationship to time, space, and gravity. In this minimal yet immersive gesture, Bénéteau extends his practice beyond the realm of sculpture, aligning it with the kind of experiential art that transcends its material form.
Damien Bénéteau, 'Variations in Variations' - Fondation Vasarely, 2022-2023. Picture Courtesy of Damien Bénéteau. © Buysse Gallery. All rights reserved.
Opinion Piece - Louis Buysse
The pendulum-whether in Bénéteau's Variations or Foucault's 19th-century experiment-represents a fundamental truth about time: it is both constant and immeasurable. Foucault's pendulum, grounded in the Earth's rotation, offers a scientific certainty. Bénéteau's pendulum, on the other hand, frees itself from this certainty and becomes something else: a poetic reflection on movement and stillness. By detaching the pendulum from its scientific purpose and introducing it to the realm of light and space, Bénéteau creates a new kind of truth-one that is deeply personal and perceptual.
What I find particularly striking about Bénéteau's work at the Fondation Vasarely is its restraint. It doesn't overwhelm or perform for the viewer; it simply is. And yet, its presence is monumental, both physically and conceptually. As an artist, Bénéteau reminds us that sculpture can do more than occupy space-it can alter our perception of it.
To younger artists, there is a lesson here. Bénéteau proves that simplicity does not mean emptiness, and scale does not require excess. His pendulum swings not as a metaphor for time, but as a manifestation of it-something to be observed, felt, and absorbed. It is a work that resonates long after you leave the room, much like Foucault's invention, whose quiet persistence continues to mark the Earth's rotation to this day.
- Louis Buysse
Damien Bénéteau, Variations 135, 2022. © Buysse Gallery. All rights reserved.
Damien Bénéteau
