Dan Colen

En Grève

No Velibs Were Harmed In The Making Of This Sculpture.

Dan Colen liberates and exasperates the familiar. With an acute, even transcendental sensitivity to that which is hiding in plain sight, Colen excavates unchartered ground in the slippery discussion begun with Marcel Duchamp’s Readymades.
An optimistic eye recognizes the beautiful and the possible in the ever-present, an alchemical mixture of the urge to isolate, vandalize, celebrate, and confer.

At Colette, “En Grève” is Colen’s use of the ubiquitous velibs of Paris. Applying pressure to the mass availability and implicit trust embedded in the system of public transportation, Colen has realized an absurd, vaudevillian gesture which functions both as sculpture and event. This site-specific work will occupy the space for seven days, after which, the bicycles will return to their principal function, circulating throughout the city of Paris, carrying the spirit of their time as Dan Colen’s artwork with them.