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Milène Guermont

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Milène Guermont
Milène Guermont in front of PHARES, Place de la Concorde
NationalityFrench
Known formonumental interactive sculptures, polysensual concrete
Notable workPHARES, INSTANTS, CAUSSE
Websitehttp://www.mileneguermont.com

Milène Guermont, born in 1981 in Normandy, France, is an artist and an inventor.[1]

Her major artworks in public spaces are the monument INSTANTS for the 70th anniversary of the Second World War at Utah Beach, the tomb CAUSSE at Montparnasse Cemetery and the monumental sculpture PHARES, the first and only artwork in history to be born next to the Obelisk on Place de la Concorde in Paris.

Important steps in her creative activity are Polysensual Concrete and the Total Artwork.

Biography

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Milène Guermont is an artist and an engineer.

Early life and education

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Milène Guermont is born and grows up in the countryside of Normandy.

She studies at Lycée Robert de Mortain, one of the smaller high schools of France. She sets there A levels in sciences with a non-compulsory option in fine arts, even if it is not taught in her school. She obtains a 20/20 when presenting her artwork THE FISH OF HAPPINESS. She becomes the first female of her high school to enter the preparatory classes for scientists (Math Sup, Math Spé). She spends these two years of high level mathematics and physics at Lycée Malherbe in Caen, Normandy.

In 2001, besides the national competitions for the engineering schools, she participates in the one of architecture school ENSAIS without having attended the specific preparation year. After succeeding in the creative writing session, for the oral she is asked to comment on a picture of the FALLINGWATER without having ever heard about it or of Frank Lloyd Wright before. At the end, she is one of the majors of the national competition to this architecture school in Strasbourg.

Finally, she decides to enter the generalist engineering school ENSIACET in Toulouse and starts art expression classes in parallel. In 2003, she is hired as guest scientist at the Engineering Building of Brown University, an Ivy League, in Providence, USA, to work on carbon nanotubes. In 2004, she enters the ENSMN in Nancy with classes of art at École des beaux-arts de Nancy in the framework of ARTEM. In its library, she becomes fascinated by the stair design by Roger Tallon shown in a book. After speaking with this designer, she decides to submit her candidacy to the ENSAD where Roger Tallon gives the first class of design in France.

Milène Guermont sat the competition of this art school, considered as one of the two best of France, and goes straight to the third year. She is at this time the only engineer in the school. Besides the compulsory classes, she spends at least one entire day per week to learn painting in the class of the first year. She also experiments with argentic photography, bone china and fashion.

Career

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Milène Guermont has diplomas in both art and engineering.[2] To materialize her ideas, she has developed several innovations, some patented.[3][4]

The artist creates "Polysensual[5][6] Concrete" to make sculptures that interact (sound, light, vibration) when you touch them.[7] The first interactive concrete sculpture is untitled TIDE-MATRIX and looks like a table; it is shown at VIA in 2007. The second one is untitled MUR OCEANE, has the shape of a wall, and is laureate to the competition MATIERE GRISE and shown at Maison Object. The third one is entitled BARREL and looks like a barrel that emits sounds and light when you pet it; this artwork is a finalist in the international competition of sculptures organized by Noilly Prat and is shown at ART PARIS ARTFAIR at the Grand Palais.

Her first solo show is entitled CONCRETE LANDSCAPES and occurs in 2008 at the Town Hall of the 8th arrondissement of Paris. The same year she does FIRST STEP on a bridge designed by Rudy Ricciotti at Saint Guillem-le-Désert (France), she uses her patented technique of Colored Engraving, and she creates MON AMOUR for Art Basel Miami (USA) at Galerie Bertin Toublanc that consists of one thousand concrete blocks and 3 balls of her Polysensual Concrete.

In 2009, her work is shown at the New Art Center of New York City (USA) and at the Art Center of Salt Lake City (USA).

In 2011, she does her first sculpture integrated into architecture: M.D.R. for the school of Sainte Marie de Neuilly (France). To make this piece, Guermont used three techniques: Craters Concrete, Colored Engraving on Concrete and Polysensual Concrete.

Her first solo show is entitled SENSITIVE MEMORIES and happens in 2012 at the National Archives of France, it is the first time that contemporary artworks invest different rooms of the Hotel de Soubise.[8][9]

Milène Guermont continues her work on the tactility and experience of touch to bigger scales. She creates public artworks from a few grams to several tons[10][11] that respond to their environments, like INSTANTS[12][13] (installed since June 2014 on Utah Beach) in the Atlantic Wall; PHARES,[14][15][16][17] imagined as a dialogue with the Luxor Obelisk[18][19][20][21] (installed from October 2015 until April 2016 on Place de la Concorde, Paris); or A BEAT on the Eiffel Tower in February 2016.

In July 2016, her artwork CAUSSE, commissioned by an eminent scientist, is installed permanently in the preservation area of the Montparnasse Cemetery in Paris. This sculpture is made of high-performance concrete and light.[22][23][24][25]

She collaborates with people from different fields. For example, the architect Claude Parent imagines with her THE PEARL OF LAOS; this "folie" (an architecture without obvious function) is shown at FONDATION CARTIER. The theatre director Jean Lambert-Wild conceives a play with some of her artworks like her Polysensual Concrete sculpture BARREL.

She has a solo show called LES CRISTAUX at the Mineralogy Museum Mines ParisTech[26][27] in 2016, the first time that the museum accepts to open its space to show contemporary artwork in dialogue with the collection of minerals.

In 2017, Milène is selected to represent the French engineers at the World Federation of Engineering Organizations (WFEO), UNESCO's partner.[28] Her sculpture made of Polysensual Concrete, MINI AGUA,[29][30] is the artwork shown at the French Pavilion of the International Exhibition ASTANA 2017.[31]

She receives in Brussels the artprize of NOVA XX, international competition of women artists who use hi-tech.[32][33][34]

In 2018, she has solo shows at Trinity House,[35][36][37] Westminster, Jérome Seydoux-Pathé Foundation, Town Hall of the 13th arrondissement of Paris,[38] UNESCO.[39] PYRAMIDION is exhibited on a boat next to Musée d'Orsay[36][37] during NUIT BLANCHE Paris.[40] It is the only sculpture at Lieu Secret for the festival Badass with Lou Doillon, Agnes Jaoui and Manon Garcia. PYRAMIDION interacts with the public and the WALKING MAN by Giacometti at UNESCO[41] in particular for the First International Day of Light and La Nuit des Musées. Her pyramid belongs to the "2018, European Year of Cultural Heritage",[42] The International Day of Women Days in Engineering,[43][44] the London Festival of Architecture,[38] the Open Houses of the capital of the UK. Soprano Katerina Mina performs a capella into PYRAMIDION TWIN at Trinity House, London.

Milene is one of the three "Entrepreneurial Women of the Year" of Usine Nouvelle[45], one of the eight speakers on "Women's Achievements and Professional Attainments" at the international symposium MoMoWo in Turin[46][47] and becomes Honorary Fellow of Queen Mary University in London.

In 2019, she belongs to the French Delegation - she is the youngest and also the only artist - of the Global Summit of Women that occurs in Basel and receives the PEACE HERO AWARD.[48]

In 2020, she becomes an Eisenhower Fellow (she is the only French one and the only artist) in a worldwide competition that identifies 25 women leaders. She receives the Maria & Hap Wagner Award in legacy to the American engineer and philanthropist.

In 2020, 80 companies of French Excellency[38] are federated to create a habitable total artwork in the neighborhood of New Athens in Paris. It questions the notion of immersive arts. This habitable sculpture requires a lot of research and development: Milène designs everything from the parquet to the chandelier. She revisits ancient handcraftsmanship and new technologies. She creates a concept of an alphabet made of “art-objects” than can be expanded beyond the walls of the site in Paris.

In 2021, her sculpture BALANCE, made of concrete and light, is installed at Père Lachaise Cemetery.

Representation / Jury

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Milène Guermont represents FEMMES INGENIEURS (Women Engineers) and IESF at international institutions such as WFEO since 2017.

Milène is a member of numerous juries, like that for the diploma of l’Ecole spéciale d’architecture, the artistic competition “Art et Sciences” at the Sorbonne, Ecoles d’Art Américaines de Fontainebleau, LVMH and the World Architecture Festival.

Bibliography

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  • (en) ART & CULTURE(S) NUMERIQUE(S) : PANORAMA INTERNATIONAL by Anne-Cécile Worms and Dominique Roland. Text by Véronique Odé. Editions Centre des arts d'Enghien-les-Bains. 2012. (ISBN 2-916639-21-7)
  • (fr) ART ET ANIMALITE - DOSSIERS SUR L'ART under direction of Hélène Singer. Text by Vincent Delaury. Editions Ligeia. With the support of PARIS MUSEES. 2013. EAN 9770989602007
  • (en) LE GRIS by Annie Mollard-Desfour with the preface by Philippe Claudel. Editions du CNRS. 2015. (ISBN 2-271-08897-6)
  • (en) CULTURE ET CREATIONS DANS LES METROPOLES-MONDE, under direction of Michel Lussault and Olivier Mongin with the help of Sylvain Allemand and Edith Heurgeon. Text by Anne-Marie Morice. Editions Hermann. 2016. (ISBN 978-2-7056-9299-5)
  • (en) PHARES by Ehab Badawy, Jean-Paul Viguier, Alain Niderlinder, Milène Guermont. Editions PublishRoom – Texte Vivant. With the support of the CNF de l'UNESCO, the RMN and the Fondation Henri Cartier-Bresson, 2017. (ISBN 978-2-36723-088-7)
  • (en) MOMOWO - WOMEN’S CREATIVITY SINCE THE MODERN MOVEMENT (1918-2018): TOWARD A NEW PERCEPTION AND RECEPTION, by Helena Seražin, Emilia Maria Garda and Caterina Franchini. SRC SAZU. Založba ZRC, France Stele Institute of Art History. 2018. (ISBN 978-961-05-0106-0)

References

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  1. ^ Maria Zawisza, "The revenge of the female sculptors" [1], LE MONDE, 2013
  2. ^ Florian Loisy, "Milène Guermont, the artist of the concrete for Nuit Blanche", LE PARISIEN, 2014
  3. ^ Milène Guermont has different patents and received the OSEO EMERGENCES PRIZE from the Ministry of Superior Research and Industry of France in 2009 [2]
  4. ^ Camille Larher, "Milène immortalizes the sand of Utah beach" [3], OUEST FRANCE, 2014
  5. ^ Cristina Biordi, "L'insostenibile leggerezza del cemento: Le opere di Milène Guermont al Museo di Mineralogia di Parigi" [4], AGRPRESS, 2016
  6. ^ Stéphanie Pioda, “Mur Nuées by Milene Guermont shown at Art Elysées”, BEAUX ARTS MAGAZINE, 2013
  7. ^ "Fonds Culturel de l'Ermitage partners with Art Paris Art Fair to support Art in Anthropocene" [5], AMA, 2016
  8. ^ "Mémoires sensibles !", official website of the National Archives of France, 2012 [6]
  9. ^ "Milène Guermont, Mémoires sensibles" [7], PARIS ART, 2012
  10. ^ Aude Lavigne, "Milène Guermont, artist" [8], FRANCE CULTURE, 2016
  11. ^ Annie Mollard-Desfour, The Grey, CNRS EDITIONS (ISBN 978-2-271-08897-0)
  12. ^ Vincent Delaury, "Milène Guermont, c'est du béton" [9], L'OEIL, 2014
  13. ^ Hélène Singer, Art And Animality, LIGEIA EDITIONS
  14. ^ "Le Paris créatif artistique et engagé de la COP21" [10], official website of the UNRIC, 2015
  15. ^ "PHARES", official website of the International Year of Light [11], 2015
  16. ^ Noa Ishaki, "Dominance in Art and Architecture"[12], ARTFAIMUSGAL, 2016
  17. ^ "The pyramid of place de la Concorde: two lives for this lighthouse"[13], ALAYAT, 2017
  18. ^ Marie-Anne Kleiber, "Baleine géante et bulles volantes : l'art au service de la Terre pour la COP21" [14], LE JOURNAL DU DIMANCHE, 2015
  19. ^ "Tous les rendez-vous de la COP21" [15], official website of the city of Paris, 2015
  20. ^ "COP 21 : Phares, une sculpture qui a du cœur" [16], official website of the Région Île-de-France, 2015
  21. ^ Julie Cateau, "La Manchoise Milène Guermont allume la Concorde"[17], OUEST FRANCE, 2015
  22. ^ Frédéric Pommier, "La semaine culturelle du 31 octobre"[18], FRANCE INTER, 2016
  23. ^ "Art and technology visit the cemetery"[19], AMA, 2016
  24. ^ Francis Gouge, "La tombe du savant (encore) inconnu"[20], LE MONDE, 2016
  25. ^ Sabrina Silamo, CAUSSE, an artwork in the cemetery”, TELERAMA, 2016
  26. ^ "Milène Guermont, Cristaux" [21], official website of the Ministry of Culture and Communication of France, 2016
  27. ^ "Les Cristaux de Milène Guermont au Musée de Minéralogie" [22], official website of PSL, 2016
  28. ^ The official announcement on the website of the Federation of Engineers and Scientists of France, 2017 [23]
  29. ^ "A pyramidal project"[24], KAZPRAVDA, 2017
  30. ^ "Strong creativity of the French architect and sculptor who makes one dream with concrete"[25], VECHER, 2017
  31. ^ Christine Raynaud, "Kazakhstan : le béton hisse le pavillon français !", CONSTRUCTION CAYOLA, 2017 [26]
  32. ^ Press release Prize of NOVA XX by HALLES SAINT-GERY, 2017
  33. ^ Julie Cateau, " Milène Guermont, the artist-engineer who wants to make you love concrete", OUEST FRANCE, 2018
  34. ^ Vincent Fournout, "Milene Guermont and the hand that caresses concrete", TOUTE LA CULTURE, 2018
  35. ^ "* Leila Lamnaouer, "Milene Guermont illuminates Paris at the rhythm of Londoners' heartbeats", FRENCH MORNING, 2018". 28 June 2018.
  36. ^ a b "Press release "PYRAMIDION at Trinity House", TRINITY HOUSE, 2018".
  37. ^ a b "Julia Goigoux, "A pyramid next to the tower of London", LONDRESMAG, 2018".
  38. ^ a b c "Interview of Milene Guermont for USINE EXTRAORDINAIRE, 2018". YouTube.
  39. ^ ""UNESCO celebrates light", Official website of UNESCO. 2018".
  40. ^ ""interactive artworks by Milene Guermont", CONVIXION, 2018".
  41. ^ ""UNESCO celebrates light", Official website of UNESCO, 2018".
  42. ^ ""Birth of Pyramidion", CULTURE MINISTRY OF FRANCE, 2008".
  43. ^ "Hilary Lamb, THE ENGINEERING & TECHNOLOGY" Pyramid lights up in London for the International Day of Women in Engineering, 2018". 22 June 2018.
  44. ^ ""PYRAMIDION: interactive art – architecture by Milene Guermont, the sculptor – engineer", London Festival Of architecture, 2018".
  45. ^ Nouvelle, L'Usine (24 September 2018). "Christophe Bys, "Industry prizes 2018 ", USINE NOUVELLE, 2018".
  46. ^ "Véronique Grange Saphis, "Pyramidions artworks by Milene Guermont", ART IT BAG, 2018". 20 July 2018.
  47. ^ Seražin, Helena; Garda, Emilia Maria; Franchini, Caterina (13 June 2018). Helena Serazin, Emilia Maria Garda, Caterina Franchini, "MOMOWO Women's Creativity since the Modern Movement (1918-2018), 2018. ISBN 978-961-05-0106-0.
  48. ^ "Movie for the PEACE HERO AWARD, 2019". YouTube.
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