Sorin Pierrick

Pierrick Sorin is a video artist, scenographer and film director. Since the late 1980s, he has been making short films and video installations. Well before selfies became a staple of digital media, he realized a number of video self-portraits. In short stories, where he is generally the only actor, he examines his own daily life with distance and burlesque irony, questioning the value of contemporary art practices (Réveils, De belles sculptures contemporaines – 1988). The artist takes inspiration from Méliès and pioneers of the cinema as he creates “optical theaters”. Combining handiwork with new media technologies, he stages small characters (similar to holograms) in real space among tangible objects. With an artistic attitude that, in addition to being contemporary and intellectual, also speaks to a wide audience, Pierrick Sorin has been commissioned by a number of major brands (Chanel, Cartier, Renault, LVMH, Galeries Fayette…). He also creates participative works involving the audience in visual sketches that are produced live (Vous êtes tous mes amis, Warming seat – 2008). His works have been presented in major contemporary art venues: Fondation Cartier, Centre Pompidou, Tate Gallery in London, Guggenheim Museum in New York, Metropolitan Museum of Photography in Tokyo, Museo de la Reina Sophia in Madrid… In 1998, he represented France at the São Paulo Biennale. From 2007, Sorin stepped up from miniature optical theater to live performance, in particular staging and directing operas: Rossini’s La Pietra del paragone; Pop’pea, pop-rock version of Monteverdi’s Coronation of Poppea, works presented at Théâtre du Châtelet in 2007 and 2011, Puccini’s Turandot at La Scala in Milan in 2012, Mozart’sThe Enchanted Flute at Opéra de Lyon in 2013. In 2015, he presented at Théâtre du Châtelet Offenbach’s buffoon opera La belle Hélène. His theater productions are often based on the use of live video. To him, the stage is a space for creative filming in real time. The artist authored a play based on live video, 22H13, which was represented over a hundred times in France, Russia, Switzerland and South America. He also made a few music videos, including Philippe Katerine’s first MV.