Marcel Dinahet was born in 1943 in Finistère in western–most Brittany, France (the name Finistère comes from the Latin ‘finis terrae’ meaning ‘the end of the earth’) and has worked as a sculptor since the 1960s. About 30 years ago his practice shifted abruptly from sculpture to video. His focus is the littoral, within and around seas, rivers, sources, ports, documenting both the places and the people who live and work in these boundary zones in many sites around the world, together with the issues that affect them. The subject of his work is always as local and direct as it is global in resonance, as personal as it is universal and political; his methodology and approach exude calm, […]
Marcel Dinahet was born in 1943 in Finistère in western–most Brittany, France (the name Finistère comes from the Latin ‘finis terrae’ meaning ‘the end of the earth’) and has worked as a sculptor since the 1960s. About 30 years ago his practice shifted abruptly from sculpture to video. His focus is the littoral, within and around seas, rivers, sources, ports, documenting both the places and the people who live and work in these boundary zones in many sites around the world, together with the issues that affect them. The subject of his work is always as local and direct as it is global in resonance, as personal as it is universal and political; his methodology and approach exude calm, curiosity, questioning, and consideration, never confrontation. His videos while appearing to be documentary in nature suggest the quality of note–taking and the personal archive. In France, Dinahet’s work has been widely shown in public galleries, and is included in the Fonds National d’art contemporain (FNAC) as well as the FRAC collections of Alsace, Brittany, Languedoc Roussillon, Champagne–Ardennes, Lower Normandy, Burgundy and Corsica among others. In 2013, in celebration of 30 years of the FRAC, Marcel Dinahet was selected as the artist representing FRAC Bretagne, in which respect he was invited to co–curate a year–long series of exhibitions and events to celebrate this significant anniversary.
