The frac île-de-france presents at le plateau Montage of attractions, the first solo exhibition by Aurélien Froment in a public gallery in Paris.

Aurélien Froment ‘s work could be conceived as a directory, that he has been freely arranging for a good decade. The authors after which he works – whether they are « visionary craftsmen », « directors of the real » or « philosophers-model makers » - are often secondary characters of history, marginalized by default, possible figures for a counter-history of utopia. Using films, photographic series or installations, Aurélien Froment appropriates the documentary style to revisit works neither completely tangible nor solely utopian.

At Le Plateau the artist will be installing a specific project revisiting the work of Friedrich Fröbel and Ferdinand Cheval. Playing with a contextual shift and fragmentation, he proposes a reconstruction by staging their works based among others on their photographic reproduction.

Fröbel Fröbeled (1836-1852 : Educational Games of Friedrich Fröbel’s Kindergarten)

While reducing the toys of his era to elementary forms, Fröbel’s project was to enable children to engage with the complexity of the world. This exhibition features for the first time the complete sequence of toys conceived by this pioneer of modern education.

Tombeau idéal de Ferdinand Cheval (a Life size Exhibition)

Between 1879 and 1912, Ferdinand Cheval created a monumental work that stills elude interpretation. This exhibition features a selection of figures and architectural details from the enigmatic oeuvre of Hauterives’ s most celebrated postman.

Montage of Attractions, or how – beyond the suggested (and real) amusement, two seemingly opposite approaches are suddenly brought together, as the reminiscence of one is projected into the deciphering of the other.

Born in 1976 in Angers, France, Aurélien Froment works and lives in Dublin.

Solo shows (selection): Contemporary Art Gallery, Vancouver ; Villa Arson, Nice ; Spike Island, Bristol, 2014 ; Mother’s Tankstation, Dublin, 2013 ; Le Crédac, Ivry-sur-Seine ; Musée départemental d’art contemporain, Rochechouart ; Marcelle Alix, Paris ; Centre culturel français, Milan, 2011; Khastoo Gallery, Los Angeles ; Motive Gallery, Amsterdam, 2010 ; CCA Wattis, San Francisco ; Gasworks, London ; Montehermoso, Vitoria, 2009.

Group shows (selection): You Imagine What You Desire, 19th Biennale of Sydney, The Encyclopedic Palace, 55th Venice Biennale, Curiosity, Turner Contemporary, Margate et De Appel, Amsterdam, 2013 ; Descriptive Acts, SF MoMa, San Francisco ; In the Holocene, MIT List Visual Arts Center, Cambridge ; Hapax Legomena, Mercer Union, Toronto, 2012 ; Une terrible beauté est née, 11e Biennale de Lyon, Our Magic Hour, Yokohama Triennale; Dystopia, CAPC, Bordeaux, 2011 ; 2 ½ Dimensional, deSingel, Antwerp ; 10,000 Lives, 8th Gwangju Biennale ; Paper Exhibition, Artist Space, New York ; From the Gathering, Helen Pitt Gallery, Vancouver ; L'espace des mots, Mudam, Luxembourg, 2009. Aurélien Froment is represented by galerie Marcelle Alix in Paris and Motive Gallery in Brussels.