Daniel Arsham: Paris, 3020

Daniel Arsham’s uchronic aesthetics revolves around his concept of fictional archaeology. Working in sculpture, architecture, drawing and film, he creates and crystallizes ambiguous in-between spaces or situations, and further stages what he refers to as future relics of the present. They are eroded casts of modern artifacts and contemporary human figures, which he expertly makes out of some geological material such as sand, selenite or volcanic ash for them to appear as if they had just been unearthed after being buried for ages.

To create this new body of sculptures, the artist Daniel Arsham tapped into the vast collection of molds produced by the Art Workshops of the RMN – Grand Palais. Using molds of sculptures in the collections of the Louvre and other institutions throughout France, the artist’s studio team worked alongside that of RMN’s statuary-molders in the execution of the works. 

Always iconic, most of the objects that he turns into stone refer to the late 20th century or millennial era, when technological obsolescence unprecedentedly accelerated along with the digital dematerialization of our world.