Exhibition “Light III” Michel Comte at Galerie Urs Meile, Beijing

Press Release

Michel Comte: Light III
Galerie Urs Meile Beijing
D10, 798 East Street, 798 Art District, No. 2 Jiuxianqiao Road Chaoyang District, 100015 Beijing, China
19 May 2018 to 10 August 2018
Preview: Friday 18 May, 4-6.30pm

Michel Comte’s Light III presents in China
Several works to explore the impact of environmental decline 
on Earth’s oceans and glaciers

From 19 May 2018, Michel Comte will present Light III at Galerie Urs Meile Beijing, in an exhibition featuring several works that explore the impact of environmental decline on glacial landscapes and our oceans.

With Light III, the Swiss artist and photographer continues a series of evocative exhibitions begun in 2017 at the MAXXI museum in Rome and the Triennale museum in Milan, where the shows Light and Black Light, White Light opened last November.

The pieces for Light III are made in and made from China, both revealing and connecting to the effects of climate change in the country; Michel Comte has been in China for several months prior to the exhibition, sourcing materials and creating the works.

At the heart of Light III is a 580-piece porcelain installation completely done by hand, with layers of salt and pigment used to create a immense horizon of a dying glacier in full abstraction, acting as a symbolic reference to the environmental effects of pollution on glacial ice. This will be complemented by a large series of rubbings made from 580 porcelain pieces, as well as eleven salt and dust pigment paintings. In creating his exhibitions, Comte uses no artificial materials; everything he exhibits is manufactured locally.

The exhibition Light III opens on 19 May 2018 at Galerie Urs Meile Beijing and runs until 10 August 2018

Editors’ notes

About Michel Comte

Michel Comte is Swiss artist, photographer and environmental advocate. Originally trained as a professional art restorer, Comte is a self-taught photographer who has significantly influenced contemporary photography. In addition to his commercial work, he has collaborated on documentary assignments in war zones in Iraq, Afghanistan, Bosnia, Sudan and Cambodia for the international Red Cross and his own non-profit organisation, the Michel Comte Water Foundation. His recent works include the feature film, The Girl from Nagasaki (2013) — a retelling of the classic opera Madame Butterfly which premiered at the Sundance Film Festival in 2014, as well as his evocative and powerful Light series, which explores the impact of environmental changes via sculpture, (video) installations and photography.

About the Light series
Michel Comte’s Light series explores the impact of environmental changes by way of sculpture, (video) installations and photography. The first exhibition, Light, was held at MAXXI in Rome from 14 November to 17 December 2017. The second, Black Light, White Light, was presented at the Triennale di Milano from 28 November 2017 to 1 January 2018. These two exhibitions were curated by Jens Remes, who was also responsible for the art direction of the accompanying three-volume publication, Light, which features more than 500 photographs taken during Comte’s numerous mountain-climbing expeditions. In 2018, the Light series travels to China with the presentation of Light III in Beijing at Galerie Urs Meile. The artist is planning a major land-art project in 2019 in the Mojave Desert called The Ring of Fire. With it, he hopes to highlight another consequence of climate change, the increasing desertification of large swaths of the Earth. With these ambitious exhibition projects, Comte seeks to create awareness of climate change and call attention to its devastating effects.

About Galerie Urs Meile Beijing

Since its establishment in 1992, Galerie Urs Meile has contributed to the presentation and dissemination of contemporary art, from painting and sculpture to photography, installation and video. It was one of the first international galleries to focus on the Chinese art scene and has been working on an international level with Chinese artists since 1995. The gallery has two locations, in Lucerne (Switzerland) and Beijing (China). While the centre of operations is based in Switzerland, the Beijing gallery has established itself as an international meeting place for collectors, curators, artists and aficionados of the arts.