aurèce vettier

aurèce vettier is an art project founded in 2019 by Paul Mouginot (b. 1990). This alias, formed using an algorithm, is a metaphor for the desire for a collaborative, open and hybrid approach.

This identity, like all of aurèce vettier’s work, bridges the tangible world where one can exist, draw, paint, sculpt, break, and erase—with the expansive data space, a realm that transcends human grasp. In this virtual space, which involves AI algorithms and heavy mathematical processing, aurèce vettier explores new forms, which are then deployed as tangible objects, deeply intertwined with various crafts.

The approach is not to consider the machine-generated elements as a set of finished works, but rather as raw material expanding conceptual possibilities and complementing the initial knowledge of art history.

Poetry lies at the heart of aurèce vettier’s entire practice, with the first work being a collaboration between the artist and a machine to publish a book of poetry. The algorithms, never intended to replace the artist, acted as a tool—generating raw material that was then curated and shaped by hand.

Building on research from the 1950s, when artists began exploring generative approaches, aurèce vettier has observed that the more sophisticated technologies become, the more fragile are the works they produce.

This subtle yet powerful gesture, this perpetual communication between the real and the virtual realms, now unfolds across multiple mediums in a minimalist form. The Potential Herbariums series is made up of oil paintings, bronze sculptures, and digital works, each representing fantastical plant forms dreamed up by artificial intelligences, which could have been found on the slopes of Mount Analogue, the mythical mountain in René Daumal’s unfinished novel.