Drawing from the 19th-century German concept of ‘weltschmerz’—a melancholic realisation that reality falls short of our ideals—Élie Bolard’s solo exhibition transforms the KBK gallery into a mechanical protest against the absurdity of the everyday.
Through his kinetic and sound installations assembled by abandoned objects, industrial debris, and reanimated machines, Weltschmerz stages a darkly humorous “danse macabre” of post-functional technology. In Bolard’s world, robotic fingers mourn forgotten traces (Dés-Affectations), car wash brushes reclaim their autonomy (Void loop()), and empty beer bottles find their voice in collective rhythms (Les Siffleuses, Untitled 1, and Untitled 2). These ritualistic sculptureschallenge the systems that shaped them, reject silence and servitude and reclaim their place in society as conscious entities. They ridicule, question, and resist human-imposed functions in an attempt to find a
voice beyond their original functions. A one-time live performance by Sarah Wéry will activate the installations introducing a human response to Bolard’s mechanical choreographies.
In Weltschmerz, sorrow becomes resistance. This is a world in revolt— mechanical, absurd, and unexpectedly alive.