For Muse, Chourouk Hriech has chosen to design a journey through 7 totems of different sizes in painted metal and adhesive, which feature designs from the environment in which they are installed and are illuminated in the evening with a colorful halo. The artist first drew inspiration from the name of the Muse shopping center itself and then from the architectures of sites in Metz. Thus, you can recognize the water tower of the train station or the Centre Pompidou-Metz reinterpreted by Chourouk Hriech.
Indeed, nature freely resurfaces in the interstices of these urban landscapes, and birds, a recurring motif in the artist’s work, are inscribed on each totem as the guiding thread of this visual journey.
Stemming from Chourouk Hriech’s impressions and memories of frequently traversing the city, these drawings transcend time and space and, through them, tell the story of Metz. They are an invitation to unleash the imagination, to travel into the artist’s world, and to discover Metz from a poetic perspective. Intrigued, we are invited to lift our gaze towards the sky along each totem while wandering through this vertically-oriented forest.
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Nuit Blanche 2020
4 September 2020Annual artistic event dedicated to contemporary art, Nuit Blanche is organized by the city of Paris, every first Saturday of October since 2002.
Following the first metropolitan edition in 2019, Nuit Blanche is co-organized this year with the Métropole du Grand Paris, for an edition that extends throughout the metropolitan area. For one night (from 7 p.m. to 7 a.m.), contemporary creation in all its forms is celebrated in the city, in public spaces, in prestigious monuments, and in buildings that are usually unknown or inaccessible. The event is free and open to all.
We live at the heart of a contradiction: in the enjoyment of a frenetic activity (economic, technological, tourist, social as well) that is increasingly detached from the natural world, and in the unprecedented awareness that this activity is weakening our humanity – a fact that we are reminded of by a virus probably transmitted by the pangolin, one of the most poached mammals on the planet.
Is it possible to slow down? Is it possible to rethink the rationalist, extractivist and anthropocentric way in which we live and see the world? Is it possible to make room for a more poetic relationship, a compositional relationship with the plurality of worlds – human, vegetable, animal – in their infinite variety?
The times invite us to build this common presence, in the words of René Char, to take part in life in all its complexity, with its «marvellous share of rebellion of charity», its equivocal share of mystery, uncertainty and discovery.
The Nuit Blanche 2020 will propose to turn our eyes, and all our senses, towards the immense richness of life, to learn to be attentive to it in a different way.
If a whole current of human sciences (anthropology, philosophy, political science) and earth sciences is today calling for this change of perspective, some artists are also drawing it, sometimes for a long time, by imagining openings, crossroads, in our experience of the world.
The list of artists and works of art is currently being drawn up, as are the itineraries, revolving around the museums of Modern Art in Paris, Bourdelle, Zadkine, and the Petit Palais.
Jeanne Brun, Fabrice Hergott, Christophe Leribault, Amélie Simier
Sortilèges – Elisabeth Ballet
4 September 20201% artistique de l’Université de Nantes (Campus du Tertre)
« I stretched cords from bell tower to bell tower;
garlands from window to window;
golden chains from star to star, and I dance.»
With this miniature poem by Arthur Rimbaud deployed on the roofs of the Faculty of Letters in Nantes, Elisabeth Ballet creates an immense scene that evokes a runway and suggests the portrait of the poet as a rope dancer. This dream of takeoff, carried by vibrant words linked to breath, respiration, its cadences, and rhythms, fits into the multiple perspectives of the campus rehabilitated to greet the infinite openness to the world.
Commissioned by: University of Nantes
Production: Eva Albarran & Co
Realization: Métalobil
© Photo by Fanny Trichet
Idle Mode – Loris Gréaud
19 August 2020Idle Mode
MO.CO. Hôtel des collections, Montpellier, 2019
Taking his cue from the crumpled plan of the building, Loris Gréaud has created a unique neon suspension light that covers the ceiling of the Hôtel des collections’ bar, providing an original twist to a space dedicated to sharing and conviviality. In video game parlance, “idle mode” refers to when a player is at rest and sets aside the controller. Often the game’s developers provide a loop animation so that the character continues to “live” autonomously as it awaits further instructions. Loris Gréaud’s, “idle mode” alludes to the way the piece is activated or inactive depending on the presence of viewers. When the space is occupied (when the bar is open) the work looks like a lighting element used to illuminate the venue. When, on the other hand, the bar is empty, the work enters into motion and pulsation. The light fitting starts vibrating, morphing. We begin to hear a sound clip featuring a cut-up of William S. Burroughs’ “Electronic revolution” interpreted by Abel Ferrara. The work, and therefore the location in itself, is placed in idle mode.
https://vimeo.com/manage/344662362/general
© Loris Gréaud, Gréaudstudio, Galerie Max Hetzler Berlin I Paris I London, MoCo
Formule du temps, monographic exhibition of Angelika Markul – CIAP Vassivière
19 July 2020FORMULE DU TEMPS
A monographic exhibition of ANGELIKA MARKUL at the Centre International d’art et du paysage de l’île de Vassivière.
Exhibition from 2 JUNE to 1 NOVEMBER 2020
At the frontier of art, science and science fiction, FORMULE DU TEMPS is a journey through time and space, which the Art Centre takes as its vessel.
Echoing the ambiguity of Vassivière’s territory, Angelika Markul proposes a series of immersive video installations, paintings and sculptures in wax and bronze. These new works plunge the visitor into unreal landscapes that question the origin of man, where the immensity of nature as well as technology occupy a central place.
www.ciapiledevassiviere.com
www.angelikamarkul.net/fr/
Les Extatiques 2020 : Paris La Défense & La Seine Musicale
19 July 2020“A 3rd edition that’s still ecstatic, but has nothing to see… In 2014, Marina Abramovic said, “Art is a question of energy and energy is invisible”! It is this energy that is at the heart of this edition subtitled “Nothing to See” in the sense that the works presented are either improbable because they defy the senses, gravity, logic or codes of power – like the Concorde obelisk created by Ívan Argote especially for the exhibition – or conceal the visible hidden like the Zig Zag labyrinth by Hector Zamora which plays with shadows, the sun and the architecture of La Défense. Eclectic, joyful, colourful, this new edition invites you to stroll, to a surprising walk through the forms of the works and their hidden meaning that gradually reveals itself on contact with them”.
Fabrice Bousteau
The Heartbeat Museum, Christian Boltanski : Lanba, Wulong
19 December 2019The Heartbeat Museum
“The Heart represents in all cultures the seat of life and soul. Each heartbeat is a little different and reminds us of the human being it bore. Since 2008, I decided to create a world archive where thousands of hearts from all over the world would be stored.
In Wulong, I wanted to set up a permanent pavilion for recording and listening to Chinese hearts first and then to other visitors from all over the world. The heartbeats recorded in this way will be both kept in the pavilion and available for everyone to listen to. This place should become, over time, a place of pilgrimage where everyone will remember a loved one. These beats will outlive those who gave them and will remain as the memory of missing humans.”
Christian Boltanski
Sonsara, Céleste Boursier-Mougenot : Shanghai Minsheng Art Museum
17 December 2019Sonsara
Born in Nice in 1961, Céleste Bousier-Mougenot lives and works in Sète. His works have been widely exhibited and collected all over the world. After training for a musical career at the Conservatoire National de Nice, he worked as the composer of the stage director Pascal Rambert’s “Side One Posthume Théâtre” company for nearly ten years from the 1980s to the 1990s. Bousier-Mougenot started to create sound installation since 1994, was nominated for the Marcel Duchamp Prize in 2010, and represented France at the 56th Venice Biennale in 2015. His exhibition Acquaalta in 2015 turned the space of Palais de Tokyo into a lake and invited the audience to feel all the changes in tactile, visual and auditory experience from this, winning him international recognition. Bousier-Mougenot’s other important exhibitions include San Francisco Museum of Modern Art (2017), Copenhagen Contemporary (2017), Museum of Queensland, Brisbane (2016), Jupiter Artland (2016), Musée des Beaux-Arts de Montréal (2016), French Pavilion at the 56th Venice Biennale (2015), Palais de Tokyo in Paris (2015), Centre Pompidou-Metz (2015), Biennale de Lyon (2017, 2015), Museum of Contemporary Art Tokyo (2012), National Museum of Contemporary Art, Seoul (2011), the Barbican Centre in London (2010) and Le Maison Rouge in Paris (2010).
Les Extatiques 2019 : Paris La Défense
16 December 2019Extatiques, 2019
With Les Extatiques, Paris La Défense invites Fabrice Bousteau, artistic director of the exhibition, to imagine an extraordinary journey, born of the encounter and exchange between the territory and the artists. More than an exhibition, Les Extatiques is a true poetic journey. In 2019, the public is invited to discover “L’art au grand air”, air and wind being the theme of this edition. An invitation to breathe calmly or to change the air, where you can meet the works of Philippe Ramette, Pierre Ardouvin, Benedetto Bufalino and many others, through inflatable sculptures, photographs and installations.
Forme Publique 2019-2020 : Paris La Défense
16 December 2019FORMES PUBLIQUES 2019-2020
Since its creation in 2012, the Biennale Forme publique has been offering creators an innovative and experimental approach to designing street furniture adapted to the specificities of the La Défense business district. For its 4th edition on the theme of credits, it addresses the issue of sustainability. Three candidate teams composed of a designer and an industrialist were selected in a competitive dialogue to design and produce a series of prototypes, displayed and tested for one year on the Esplanade de la Défense. At the end of this period, the candidates will include the users’ feedback in their final offer and Paris La Défense will choose among them the winning range to equip its territory.
Exhibition from October 3, 2019 to fall 2020
With the furniture of Pierre Charrié + Rondino, Jean Couvreur + Buton Design, Robert Stadler + TF urban
Sponsor: Paris La Défense
Artistic director: Valérie Thomas and Jean-Chritophe Choblet for Nez Haut
Dialogue management: Open City
Production: Eva Albarran & Co (leader of the consortium)
Technical direction: Playtime
Graphic identity: H5