BIO

Born in 1987, lives and works in Caen.

 

Through a singular reflection on the interactions between human beings and nature, Paul Duncombe - winner of the COAL art and environment prize in 2020 - explores the different scales of landscape. His successive research on the Labrador ice floes, storms in the Celtic Sea, boreal forests, or the irradiated lands of Fukushima, aim at the contingent mechanisms that link these vast territories with the creatures that develop in them. From an exploration on site and then from a series of methodical experiments conducted in the studio or in the laboratory, his projects put in relation the apparent simplicity of the works of nature with the increasing technicality of modern societies.

 

From simple gestures to the most complex monumental installations, between performances, minimal sculptures and on-site interventions, his work crosses borders and disciplines. Whether it is for the organization of an expedition in a meteorite crater (Manicouagan, 2021), for a collaboration with the divers of Under the Pole (Tapemoana, 2021), or for the production of an experimental electronic work with the Grand Accélérateur National d'Ions Lourds (Nova Stella, 2018), his research has led him to work with specialists from all horizons: biologists, geologists or astrophysicists, thus multiplying the points of view and the experiments.

 

A 2014 graduate of the École Nationale Supérieure des Arts Décoratifs de Paris, Paul Duncombe develops and exhibits his creations in France and abroad: Coal Prize (IUCN, 2021), Nemo Biennial (Le 104, Paris, 2021 & 2019), ]interstice[ Festival (Caen, 2022, 2021, 2019 & 2018), Unicorn Center for Art (Beijing, 2018), Salon de Montrouge (Paris, 2018), Palais de Tokyo (Paris, 2017), Jeune Création (Galerie Thaddaeus Ropac, Paris, 2016), Avatar (Coopérative Méduse, Quebec, 2015), Kyoto Art Center (Kyoto, 2012).