PROFILE

PORTRAIT

Promotional video shot by the studio Showreal at the occasion of my exhibition at Galerie Immobilien. The filmmaker managed to accurately represent my work and my approach to images more than I would have ever expected.

MULTISTORIES _ Laurent Bompard im Portrait from Laurent Bompard on Vimeo.

BACKGROUND

Trained in applied arts in Rouen (France) and fine arts in Beauvais (France), I studied Culture and Communication at Paris VIII University before moving to London where I started working in the music industry, designing CD covers for independent labels. Relocating to Barcelona I produced digital photo-illustration for leading publications, as well as production design for the animated film Made In Pain. I then consolidated my career as a designer, illustrator and art director while keeping developing my art in Budapest before settling in Vienna where I started exhibiting regularly. I now work most of the time on my art while giving lectures to design students and working on design projects.

PHILOSOPHY

“Laurent Bompard likes to play. His images, based on photographs of urban and/or industrial land- scapes, are the result of severe cutting, re-arranging, overlaying, or, as he calls it, “rewriting the aesthetics”. By reassembling the components he totally changes not only the view, but also the energy and rhythm of the places shot, creating a fictional world – finding something new. To decipher the image, spectators are asked to take a closer look, but also to use their own imagination. Although there is a story behind each of the works, Bompard explains that the viewer “can easily go without”. He doesn’t even mind if people see something different than he does; as long as they accept the invitation to start opening their eyes and mind to discover something new as well.”

— Verena Weiss, Nevertheless Magazine

“The aim of my images is on one hand to reflect on our urban environment and architecture in general by re-composing the urban and industrial landscape, deconstructing the preconceived idea of what is interesting and what is not, what is beautiful and what is merely functional. On the other hand, I like to give the viewer a space for contemplation and I like to keep a certain balance where I give elements to build an interpretation without really telling a story. I like to maintain this moment where the mind floats in a pleasant uncertainty.”