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1995
In May, travels to Hong Kong for the inauguration of the China venue of his Champ-de-Mars sculptures at the Museum of Modern Art. In June, travels to Graphicstudio in Tampa, Florida, for an edition of large mono-prints made with tar and a steamroller. Develops his new work on the theme of the straight line and calls them Accidents. New reliefs executed in steel with an acetylene torch: Indeterminate Surfaces.
1996
Invited as a Master in Residence to the Atlantic Center for the Arts in Florida. Awarded the order of Commandeur dans l’ordre des Arts et Lettres by the Minister of Culture in France. Thierry Spitzer films an installation of Accident, chronicling one of the new works composed of straight lines, which are also exhibited at the Galerie Karsten Grève in Paris and at the Espace Fortant de France in Sète. From May through July the city of Brussels invites him to exhibit ten large sculptures from his Indeterminate Line series on Avenue Franklin Roosevelt.
1997
Moves to a new studio in Chelsea, New York. Begins a series of sculptures, Arc x 4 and Arc x 5. Designs a museum complex for an exhibition in the Espace de l’Art Concret, in Mouans-Sartoux, France. Becomes a member of the European Academy of Sciences and Arts, Salzburg.
1998
Travels to China, invited by the Mayor of Shanghai, to participate in the Shanghai International Sculpture Symposium. Further develops the series Indeterminate Surfaces.
1999
The third and definitive version of the film, Tarmacadam (1963) is finished with the help of Arkadin Productions for the exhibition Bernar Venet: 1961-1963 at the Musée d’Art Moderne et Contemporain, Geneva. Publication of a compilation of his poetry, Apoétiques 1967-1998, by the same museum. Public commission, 134.5˚ Arc, for the inauguration of the new university UNI MAIL in Geneva.
2000
Develops a new series of wall paintings, Major Equations, which are exhibited at the Museum of Modern Art in Rio de Janeiro, Brasília, and Saõ Paulo, and at the Centre d’Art contemporain Georges Pompidou in Cajarc as well as at the Musée d’Art Moderne et Contemporain in Geneva. A year with many monographs: Bernar Venet 1961-1970, a monograph by Robert Morgan published by Edition des Cahiers Intempestifs; Bernar Venet: Sculptures & Reliefs, written by Arnauld Pierre and published by Edizioni Prearo; La Conversion du regard, with texts and interviews from 1975 to 2000, published by Editions MAMCO, Geneva. Publication of a catalogue: Global Diagonals, a catalogue with a text by Jan van der Marck concerning a humanistic, artistic, and technological project with straight lines (each 300 feet in length) virtually connecting the five continents.
2001
Editions Assouline publishes Furniture, with a text by Claude Lorent, a book presenting the steel furniture design by the artist since 1968 in conjunction with an exhibition of his furniture at the Galerie Rabouan Moussion at SM’ART (Salon du mobilier et de l’objet design) at the Caroussel du Louvre, Paris. Inauguration of the Chapelle Saint-Jean in Château-Arnoux. The stained glass windows and all the furniture are designed by Bernar Venet.
2002
Solo performance evening incorporating the artist’s poetry, film, and music at the Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris. The European Academy of Sciences and Arts invites him to make a presentation at the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum on the theme of “Arts as a Mediator of Tolerance.” Solo exhibition of his sculptures at the Robert Miller Gallery in New York, and of his new equation paintings at Ludwigsmuseum, Koblenz, and at Anthony Grant Inc., New York. Monograph by Thomas McEvilley on his complete body of work published in French, German, and English by Artha and Benteli Verlag. For the duration of summer, twelve large sculptures are exhibited at The Fields of Art Omi International Sculpture Park, New York. In November, the show moves to the Atlantic Center for the Arts in New Smyrna Beach in Florida.