clem altnacht

When Altnacht leaves Maths School, his creations are rather classic (abstract-organic paintings). He then enters Architecture School where he gains thorough knowledge in applied geometry. Flying over the wall of formal conservatism, he uses digital imagery to create pictures – remarkable for their expressiveness – rather than raw architecture.
Medium and media change: paintbrushes and pencils are out; digital tools and photographic discourse are in.
Architectural and urban subjects are first to be dealt with. The aim is to shake the audience’s perception (visually and emotionally): free forms, distorted urban regeneration and architectural imagery, tortured vanishing points. Both the image and the subject are freely de-constructed and re-constructed.
Then representation succeeds to design. In 2007, Altnacht dedicates himself to the City Fictions Series. Three years later, the Series comprise over 50 pieces: alliance of technical experience, personal development, and no boundary imagination. Another door of perception opens onto a new world. Exploration to be continued…
The first pieces of the City Fictions Series were a collection of architectural outgrowths. They now have evolved into a representation of a new world – real and imaginary. The City Fictions Series challenge both our perception of a place and of its memory, making us aware of our inability to identify one without the other. The frontier between what’s real and what’s imaginary is blurred.
At the point where architectural projection, photography, and digital art meet, the City Fictions Series is a collection of real, almost unrecognizable landscapes, which, through the artist’s interpretation, have become the dramatization of a fantasized and amplified urbanscape.
It’s not about futurism, nor sci-fi, nor anticipation.
The City Fictions Series base and build the photo report upon the augmented reality of a universe and the artist’s own abstract, oniric, fantastic, and surreal expression.
The last 30 years have seen a surge in global activities and local destructions. Ten years into the 21st century, men live in huge metropolises – taking more and more ground space and sky space. They stack up in already overcrowded spaces, densely populated areas). They can’t wait to walk on Mars…and they collide with Nature.
For too many a decade, man has acted as if his environment was stable and immutable.

Tectonic movements have been changing the face of our landscapes. Human activities have been adding to it. Chernobyl nuclear accident (1986), Kobe earthquake (1995), 9-11 (2001), Sumatra Tsunami (2004), are natural and man induced local events that dramatically modify both our landscapes and the way we perceive them.
Our fairly recent awareness of a fast and man induced climate change has forced us to face reality: our environment is ever changing – permanently unstable.
Be the changes sudden or slow, loud or silent, natural or man induced, we can’t help but dreading the next catastrophe.
Since 2005, Altnacht’s work stands at the crossroads of global catastrophes and urban expansion. Landscapes explode; monumental structures are transformed and softened. Architectural imagery is the tool to move our habitats off the ground; architectural imagery is the vector to create new concepts of extreme climatic and spatial mobility.

Publications :
2009 – Martin Dawber’s Big Book of Contemporary Illustration, Anova Book, UK
2008 – “HOME”, interior design magazine, France, n°15.
2007 – Fantastic’Arts exhibition book, Fantastic Film Festival, Gerardmer, France.

Studied mathematics (UMII) and architecture (ENSAM) in Montpellier, France, 2002-2006.

Main Art exhibitions :

2010 - Camden Art Gallery, London, UK
Solo Show

2009 - Affordable Art Fair, Paris, France

2008 - Digital Fringe Festival, Melbourne, digitally displayed exhibitions.
ARTENIM, Art Fair, Nimes, France.
ENSAM (School of Architecture, Montpellier, France), solo exhibition.

2007 - Galerie N, Montpellier, France
Fantastic Film Festival, Fantastic'Arts, Gerardmer, France.

Introduced in the art market by Laurent Nathan (Montpellier, France) in 2006.