Pierre (objet trouvé), 2007, 2010
The piece is made public for the first time in the context of an outdoor sculpture area in the Swiss Jura mountains. It comes with the following information: «Naturally shaped stone with the relief of a face, carried into a cave by humans about three million years ago. Rediscovered there, and investigated at the Bernard Price Institute of Paleontology, Wits University, Johannesburg, South Africa. Widely debated by scientific scholars and art journalists. Current repository of the original unknown.» The display is furthermore accompanied by an updated bibliography on related journalistic and scientific writings.
Selected bibliography:
1997 – P. Bahn and J. Vertut, Journey through the Ice Age, Berkeley, University of California Press, US
1998 – Robert G. Bednarik, The „Australopithecine“ cobble from Makapansgat, South Africa, in: South African Archeological
Bulletin 53
1999 – Robert G. Bednarik, Manuports and very early palaeoart, mc2.vicnet.net.au/home/portable/web/manuport.html (viewed March 2010)
– Harald Uhr, Ins Blaue hinein, in: Als Gast von Hinrich Sachs: Dr. Mikaela Müller-Trutwin, Virologin, exhibition catalogue, Kunstverein Bonn, DE
2003 – Paul G. Bahn, Origins of Symbolism, in AccessScience, McGraw-Hill Companies
2005 – Dario Gamboni, Stumbling Over/Upon Art, Cabinet Magazine, Issue 19 Chance, www.cabinetmagazine.org/issues/19/gamboni.php (viewed March 2010), reprinted in 2009 in: The Kaleidoscopic Eye, publication accompanying the exhibition by Mariana Castillo Deball, Kunsthalle St. Gallen, CH
2007 – Pierre-André Delachaux in: Môtiers 2007. Art en plein air, exhibition catalogue, Môtiers, CH
– Marcelo Guimaraes, Paleoart – The Oldest “Work” of Art? Part 1: From Prehistoric Art to Early Renaissance, arthistorypart1.blogspot.com/ 2007/11 (viewed March 2010)
– The Natural History Museum London, http://piclib.nhm.ac.uk/piclib/www/image.php?img=54165 (viewed March 2010)
2011 – Marc Vermeersch, The Origin of Aesthetic Feeling and Art, in: http://marcivermeersch.wordpress.com/2011/06/16/t/ (viewed March 2016)
Shown, amongst others, at Art en plein air, Môtiers, CH, and
Ce qui vient, Rennes Biennial, FR
courtesy Galerie Skopia, Geneva, CH