A couch that resembles Marilyn Monroe’s plump red lips sits on top of a Bosch fridge. Nearby, an old gray fan is placed on top of a black safe deposit box. 
These strange combinations of familiar objects, which one can view inside the Hermes building in Sinsa-dong, are actually artwork by Bertrand Lavier, one of France’s greatest contemporary artists. 

“The idea came from my wondering about the question, ‘What is sculpture?’ It usually means a thing on a pedestal. I thought, ‘What most represents a pedestal?’ and came up with fridge, which is heavy, square and white. And I put on top of it something that represents a sculpture. So the work means two things; one, a sculpture on a pedestal and two, a sculpture itself,” the 60-year-old artist told the press on Wednesday.

His unique style of work was born 30 years ago when Lavier put a Brandt fridge on top of a Fichet Bauche safe. The much-talked-about work, titled “Brandt/Fichet Bauche,” knocked off the boundary between readymade art represented by Marcel Duchamp’s “Fountain” and traditional sculptures.

At the current exhibition “Phantoms,” Lavier’s first solo show in Korea, visitors can see Lavier’s creative combinations of art masters’ work as well as peculiar object combinations.

Lavier mixes and matches art and signatures by old masters like Pablo Picasso, Frank Stella and Salvador Dali with works by unknown artists and added his own unique touches to them.

Take the work “IKEA” for example. Lavier bought a tablecloth from IKEA, which seemed to have been inspired from Mondrian’s works, and painted his own interpretation of Mondrian’s painting on top of it. “The work is by three people; Mondrian, the IKEA designer and me,” said Lavier.

In the case of “Picasso Ultra Marine,” the three creators of the work would be Yves Klein, Picasso and Lavier.

Carmaker Citroen had bought the copyright for Picasso’s signature in the 1990s and launched the “Citroen Picasso” line. Lavier bought the car, ripped off the part that had Picasso’s signature and painted it blue, which was almost exactly like artist Yves Klein’s signature blue color known as IKB.

It is Lavier’s way of taking the role of a mediator to connect different artists.

“I like to create works that have multiple levels. On the first level, each work can be appreciated as itself even if you don’t know Picasso, Stella or Mondrian. But it is better if you do, because on the second step, you can see the phantom of the artists if you recognize them,” he said.

Did the original artists take offense? Frank Stella, among the few who is still alive, said he did not.

“I once met Frank Stella, and he said ‘I like it very much, it is perhaps better than the original!’ I would be very happy if some other artists used my work, too,” Lavier said, laughing.

The special thing about Lavier’s works is that it is impossible to make different editions. He can pick out one primitive African sculpture among millions, add his touches and turn it into a one-of-a-kind.

“I am a very occidental artist and sculptor like Rodin or Giacometti. Through me, the African sculpture by an unknown artist becomes an occidental sculpture produced by a ‘not unknown’ artist,” said Lavier.

And the good part is that his final touches are always optimistic.

“In Paris, many artists do depressed work these days. I don’t want to do heavy, depressed art. Mine are funny, a little bit, and some could start deep thoughts on the layers and the artists, but the works are light and rather optimistic. I think we can build something better for tomorrow. We can play with what we are today,” he said.

The exhibition runs through June 10 at Atelier Hermes in Sinsa-dong, southern Seoul. It is located on the third floor of Maison Hermes Dosan Park. For more information, call (02) 544-7722.

By Park Min-young   (claire@heraldcorp.com)