Jan Kopp

Jan Kopp (born May 26, 1970, in Frankfurt/Main, Germany) is a German visual artist. He has lived in France since 1991.

After graduating in 1996 from National School of Fine Arts of Paris / École nationale supérieure des Beaux-Arts/, France, he became assistant to the artists fr:Jochen Gerz and fr:Esther Shalev Gerz. In 1997 he co-founded the independent art-space GlassBox in Paris, one of the first artist-run-spaces in the French capital. Jan Kopp has been in several international artist-in-residence programs such as PS1/Momawith the Clockwork 2000: P.S.1 & Clocktower National and International Studio Program 1999-2000 in New York and Hors les Murs/Institut Français in Brazil with "Niemeyer dancing, playing with modernity, run the streets" as a subject of his residencein 2014.

Jan Kopp uses different medias – drawing, sound, video, sculpture, performance, - without favoring one or the other. He resists to any temptation of specialization or classification. His works can be small drawings or large-scale installations such as Soulever le monde, created for the Children's gallery of Centre Pompidou, Paris in 2015 or Grand Ensemble' for the Contemporary art center La Criée in Rennes, France. In the most of large-scale installations, the visitor can take part of the work by touching or making in movement one element of it or only by this presence. For instance Das endlose Spiel / The Endless game challenges the visitor as to the nature of both his role and his participation: he can take part in this interplay of tension between the visible and the sensory only by making his way along the ellipse of "Das endlose Spiel's" platform. As Gaétane Lamarche-Vadel said, Kopp shares with Kawamata inclinations for simple materials, economic, common, clear paths, the incompleteness of the work, make a collective.
Most of times, he uses many everyday objects to speak to everyone by putting them out of their usual context. By this move we can see the world differential, the artist says. Jan Kopp seeks to create artworks which don't reveal themselves in one glance. They could appear in one way to the visitor then show a different side or give new meanings another day. The visitors don't see the same thing. The artist is always in a position to create links between art, territory and society. A major exhibition was devoted to him at the Maubuisson abbey (Val d’Oise, France) in 2011. Le Tourniquet (2011), the fruit of an experiment on the drawing medium, can be visited in three places, the Collège des Bernardins in Paris, at Fresnoy in the group exhibition Visions fugitives and at the FRAC Alsace for Affinités déchirures & attractions.
In 2015, Jan Kopp, was selected to develop an artistic research in Mulhouse (France)and Kassell (Germany) on the topic of immigration, social memory and expressions of living together in the city. He worked closely with civil society actors, academics and cultural Mulhouse.

• 2015 : Soulever le monde Children's gallery of the Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris, France
• 2015 : Constellations ordinaires,Laurence Bernard Gallery, Geneva, Switzerland
• 2013 : Un grand ensemble and Les horizons, La Criée, Contemporary art center, Rennes, France
• 2011 : La courbe ritournelle, Contemporary art center, Abbaye de Maubuisson, France
• 2010 : Das endlose Spiel / Le jeu sans fin, Kunstraum Dornbirn, Austria
• 2009 : "Kammerspiel", Martos Gallery, New York, NY
• 2008 : fr:Fonds régional d'art contemporain (FRAC) Alsace, France
• 2008 : Centre d’art Bastille, Grenoble, France

• 2014 : Ligne de front, Lab Labanque- Artois comm, Givenchy-lès-la-Bassée, France
• 2013 : Le Nouveau Festival, Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris, France
• 2011 : Architecture, Utopies, Dessin, MNAC, Bucharest, Romania
• 2010 : Res Publica, MMOMA, Moscou, Russia
• 2010 : "Fragile, Terres d'empathie", Daejeon Museum of Art, Daejeon, South Korea
• 2009 : Fragile, Contemporary art Museum, St Etienne
• 2008 : Translation, MMOMA, Moscou, Russia
• 2008 : Crisi, Angels Barcelona, Spain
• 2005 : Singuliers, Modern Art Museum, Canton, China
• 2004 : I need You, Kunsthaus Biel/Bienne, Suisse
• 2002 : Traversée, Paris Modern Art Museum, France
• 2001 : Sixth Biennial of Contemporary Art of Lyon, France
• 2000 : Clockwork, PS1/MOMA, New York, USA.

• Im Treibhaus, Collection Neuflize Vie ABN / AMRO
• Quelques mouvements cycliques, Collection publique d'art contemporain du Conseil général de la Seine-Saint-Denis, France
• News from an unbuilt city, Fonds National d'Art Contemporain, Paris, France. Currently part of the permanent collection in MAC Lyon, France
• Drawings for "No Paraderan," Fonds National d'Art Contemporain, Paris France
• Taming the Alien/Final Races, Fonds National d'Art Contemporain, Paris, France
• Westlich, Fonds National d'Art Contemporain, Paris, France
• Amoco, Frac Ile-de-France, France
• Monstres (rep.), Frac Ile-de-France, France
• Nowherelands, Frac Champagne-Ardenne, France