Oliver Beer: Magician of image and sound A portrait of artist Oliver Beer

By Emmanuelle Lequeux 

He has painted the sound of Monet's Bassin aux Nymphéas, made porcelain sing and composed an immersive opera in a prehistoric cave. After studying visual arts and cinema, the music-loving British artist set up his studio under the arch of a tunnel on the noisy London Underground. A creative den where he welcomes us with earplugs.

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It's second nature for the artist to detect the music in every moment, in every space. He has made a name for himself in this way, literally making architecture “sing”, from the concrete walls of Lyon's Sucrière to the high walls of the Fondation Vuitton. In the nooks and crannies of these spaces, he installs singers, asking them to intone the key note of the place. Each time, the audience is swept up in the awe of this breath.

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His most ambitious project to date: ”Ten years in the making and three to complete.” Partly financed by a grant from Mondes nouveaux, a post-Covid initiative launched by the Élysée to support artists, the project will be unveiled at the Lyon Biennale. It will occupy 2,000 square meters of the Grandes Locos halls in Lyon, with eight giant screens and immersive sound. This vertiginous project was born in the Font-de-Gaume cave, a major rock painting site in the commune of Les Eyzies, Dordogne.