CUT magazine about art

The importance of indifference

Olivier Mosset is known for his large, monochrome canvasses, two of which are now to be seen in the exhibition ‘Paintings and dots’ in Galerie van Gelder. A significant part of his work is about boundaries, limits and particularly the denial of these. Colour and non-colour, flatness and depth are evoked through juxtaposing monochrome areas, similar-looking canvasses hanging in the same space. Art and non-art are part of his work. It is a search for meanings in differences that are of no insignificance. The importance of indifference plays a major role in the choices that Olivier Mosset makes; everything is possible as long as a few conditions are met. This is a paradox. Once a canvas is finished we can immediately speak of an added possibility. In a subsequent work or a subsequent exhibition yet another step is made which can be negative or affirmative.. Or something new is added that is of no significance as a ‘novelty’. That’s where his adventure lies.

In the 1960s the Fluxus ideologist George Maciunas promoted Fluxus in New York, and later in Europe, by organising happenings and concerts, as well as by distributing multiples, often without the knowledge or express permission of the artist. One of the Fluxus boxes he made contains red confetti. On the box it says “Flux dots by Mosset Total Art Nice”. Olivier Mosset has included this unacknowledged work in his ‘Paintings and dots’ exhibition. By photographing the pieces of confetti from the Fluxus box and making them into a new piece, he has appropriated a work that is not by him. A work not made by him is thus disaffirmed so that it becomes his again. Olivier Mosset’s comment on this piece: “I don’t feel in any way that I’m a Fluxus artist - I’ve nothing to do with it.”
KvG