The exhibition "Geometry of Light" by artist Franklin Bault combines art and science.

[Press release] - Published on March 18, 2024 in Art & Culture, Press Room

From April 3 to May 15, 2024, as part of the Higher Education Arts & Culture Days (JACES), the Richter University Library at the University of Montpellier is hosting the exhibition "Geometry of Light." An exhibition where physics and chemistry combine with the visual arts, where light, the structure of atoms and molecules infuse the creative imagination of visual artist Franklin Bault. The exhibition opening will take place on Friday, April 5, at 12:30 p.m. in the lobby of the Richter University Library, with the artist in attendance.

This exhibition is the result of exchanges with scientists, cultural project managers and their teams, technicians, gallery owners, as well as a dialogue with a venue: the university library. Open to all, this exhibition is also an opportunity to engage with audiences around science, sculpture, painting, and, of course, art installations.

The starting point: an encounter between an artist and scientists

This art exhibition stems from artist Franklin Bault's fascination with sciences such as physics and chemistry. Indeed, this fascination has led him to create works closely linked to these two disciplines. It follows his meeting in 2022 with the COSA (science and arts connection) group, which brings together researchers in chemistry and biology, architects, and staff from the Charles Gerhardt Montpellier Institute (ICGM), the Montpellier Cell Biology Research Center (CRBM), the Host-Pathogen Interactions Laboratory (LPHI), and the Montpellier National School of Architecture (ENSAM). This meeting with the COSA group led to Franklin Bault's first exhibition, as part of the 2022 Science Festival, at the Charles Gerhardt Institute in Montpellier.

The exhibition and the artist in a few words

Franklin Bault's imagination is fueled by physics and chemistry. In this exhibition, the properties of light resonate with those of color. Through his sculptures, or more precisely, his assemblages, the artist explores scientific hypotheses about the structure of atoms, as summarized in Mendeleev's periodic table.

"My work is also often a reflection on how to connect the exhibition with a place. This connection can be formal, but not only. In this sense, it is also a reflection in terms of installation, a relatively innovative approach to recent art." Franklin Bault.

Keywords: Art and culture, Exhibition, Science