Valentin Carron’s DUST MINT is a sculpture that takes the form of a column made of 30 standard apple crates, but fabricated in aluminum. ‘I have noticed that the wood of the apple crates has slowly been replaced – surely for excellent reasons – by plastic. I also noticed that these wooden apple crates have found other horizons. They have been salvaged by companies that now offer them individually or in bulk for decorative purposes. Assembled with or without taste they can serve as shelves, nightstands, or libraries for the more educated. Even Ikea has been offering them for some time now. […] I want to create a monument to this transition from the agricultural world to that of interior decorating with this tall, spindly, and fragile accumulation of resting crates awaiting, quietly deactivated, for the next harvest or any other new assignments.’ Carron’s sculptures mark a renewed investigation into the discourse of appropriation: Neither authentic nor kitsch, neither readymade nor really craft, these objects play with ambiguity (fake wood, fake concrete, fake bronze) and with the iconography of power and authority (public sculptures, monuments).
