Art Of The Day Weekly
#29 - from 11 January 2007 to 17 January 2007
IN THE AIR
Museum, tell me your name?
The bad habit of naming museums by their initials most probably comes from the USA (MOMA for Museum of Modern Art, LACMA in Los Angeles, etc). It is spreading with a new strenght across the world. Italy is preparing its MACRO and MAXXI in Rome, its MAMBO in Bologna. After the launching of the MACBA in Barcelona Spain is getting ready to launch the ARTIUM in the Basque country and the MUSAC in León. Austria has the MUMOK, Luxembourg the MUDAM. Even France, that tends to do the opposite of most fashions to mark its cultural diversity, already has its IMA (Institut of the Arab World) and is preparing the MUCEM (Museum of European civilizations and the Mediterranean in Marseille). Egypt has just added its stone to the edifice. The future grand museum of Egyptian civilisation, that will rise next to the pyramids in 2009 over 270 000 m2, will be the NMEC. We can only regret the loss of a poetic dimension as these institutions-with their acronyms- start to resemble banks and insurance companies. On the other hand, this is excellent news for crossword puzzle amateurs.
CONTEMPORARY ART
The Swiss are coming to see us
LYON – For three months, starting on 12 January, the contemporary Swiss scene is going to be hosted in Lyon and all the Rhône-Alpes region. The galeries and institutions will be sharing the work regarding this abundant program. We will thus see Raphaël Julliard at the BF15 and Gianni Motti at the Salle de bains (in Lyon) while the International Centre for prints and books (in Villeurbanne) presents a panorama of engraving, a genre artists such as Armleder or Gigy practiced. As of 15 February, the museum of Contemporary Art of Lyon will host «A question of generations», an exhibition dedicated to artists born in the sixties, from Francis Baudevin to Ingrid Wildi, including stars such as Pipilotti Rist and Ugo Rondinone. This ambitious program with 160 events in all the fields of creation – plastic arts as well as music, theatre, dance – makes us think of the Indian season that is coming to an end in Lille. Except that the exotic aspect can be found on the other side of the border rather than on the other side of the globe…
1 000 044 candles for art
The idea underlying the srange event to be held on 17 January throughout France is to give contemporary art an unpredictable character, a little out of focus and festive. The abstruse title, « One million and forty-fourth anniversary of art», refers to an intervention by Robert Filliou, who on 17 January 1973 celebrated, in Aix-la-Chapelle, the « One million and tenth anniversary of art». The same Filliou liked to give his civil status as follows: «born in 999 963 a.a (after art)». Thirty-four years have passed, it is only fair that we set the pendulum of the universal artisic calendar straight… Ephemeral performances, installations, videos, readings: we do not know much more about these 24 hours that will touch some forty spaces of contemporary art. It will include an army of known creators – Bertrand Lavier, Daniel Buren, Jean-Pierre Raynaud, Martha Rosler, Atelier Van Lieshout - or lesser known. We may even see deceased persons,such as Raoul Hausmann or Chen Zen, who turned out to be more lively than ever.
A club of five in New York
NEW YORK - A bicycle runner, an electrician, a mailman, a business man and an employee: they have all met this winter in New york. Not in skin and bones, but rather virtually, on the external facades of the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) that hosts 8 giant screens. The installation sleepwalkers was commissioned to Doug Aitken who admits having a different idea of the metropolis since he no longer lives there. These five characters come out of their homes as night falls and blend into the New York night, where a hysteria of movement takes a hold of them together with taxis, metro cas or photocopying machines. Celebrities have lent their traits to the artist, among them Donald Sutherland and Tilda Swinton. Each of the five projections lasts 13 minutes and will be shown every evening from 5 to 10 PM, from 16 January to 12 February.
EXHIBITIONS
The shock of photos
The famous line from Paris Match could be applied to the current exhibition at the Jeu de Paume. It presents emblematic images from the news, put in order according to large themes: terrorist attacks (9/11 of course), batlles (the war of Crimea, the first conflict to be photographed), social movements (paid holidays), the fall of symbols (the Berlin wall), challenges (the space odyssey). Taken out of context, these images keep their strenght but become mute: one then realises how much they need the rest of the famous magazine's motto, the «weight of words». The selection made by the curators – from photos by pioneer Roger Fenton to the current photoreporters - shows how images have allowed for an event to be broadcast, to be transformed into a myth, to make it enter directly into each household. Today, the abundance of images renders them obsolete quicker but ensures the «good snapshot» immediate, planetary renown.
PATRIMONY
Vauban beats Le Corbusier
Paris – The minister of Culture has announced that France will present, for its inscription on the list of UNESCO's World Patrimony in 2007, the lagoons of New-Caledonia (natural patrimony) and the work of Vauban (cultural patrimony). France has 29 cultural properties and one single natural one (the gulf of Porto, in Corsica) out of the 830 on the International organization's list. Given that this year the 3 hundreth anniversary of the death of Vauban will be celebrated, it was prefered to "The work of Le Corbusier in the world», which in turn will be presented in 2008. To launch the year of Vauban, balloons were let loose on 1st January in all French cities that have his fortifications, in total… 150. On 24 January, a ceremony will take place at the Invalides, where Vauban's heart rests since 1808. Then there will be round tables, concerts, two exhibitions at the museum of the Army (29 March) and at the Cité de l’Architecture (November), various publications, among them the complete written works (his 29 Memoirs or Idlenesses, published by Champ Vallon).
BOOKS
Courbet
To publish a book on Courbet without any illustrations is quite a challenge. In his little book Gérald A. Jaeger manages quite well by combining the more romanced passages to create an atmosphere to analyse the oeuvre. We are not too enthusiastic about the play regarding Courbet and women (the beautiful teenager Lise for whom he has pure love, Virginie Binet, «the companion of brighter days», Léontine Renaude who was so unprude that she would make «the most experienced tremble"). As for the rest, we let ourselves be enraptured with a certain pleasure by the story of this life full of adventures: the rebuffes of the Salon, the adventure of the pavilion of the Alma in 1855 (Courbet, 36 years old, held his first salon), the year in the Netherlands, his friendship in the South with the young patron Bruyas. Including the disastrous matter of the Vendôme column (accused of being the main cause for its fall at the time of the Commune, Courbet went to prison and then went into exile to Switzerland) and ended his life. Courbet's relationship with spelling, with photography, the history of the Origin of the world, the links with Baudelaire or Castagnary are mentioned. Once the book is closed, we feel like seeing -or seeing again- the Baigneuses, the Casseurs de pierre, or the Rencontre. We will just have to wait for the major retrospective next fall at the Grand Palais.
IN BRIEF
LONDON - One imagines the Freud Museum sitting in dust. Yet it is hosting a mind-blowing collective exhibition starting on 11 January. The title is Paranoïa, and it explores our most irrational fears. Among the invited artists, Douglas Fishbone exhibits a young Muslim in traditional clothes, locked up in a steel cage.
LONDON - Unesco has threatened to place the Tower of London on its list of endangered patrimony due to the multiplication of sky scrapers around it. It woud be the first monument from a developped country to thus be "demoted".
NEW YORK - The Museum of Modern Art has announced the sale of a piece of land it has right next to the musuem. The way real estate is selling for in New York right now, the operation will bring in 125 million dollars.
PADOVA – According to Vittorio Sgarbi, the chairman of the National Committee for the celebrations of the 500th anniversary of the death of Mantegna, the various exhibitions dedicated to the painter from Padova, Mantova and Verona, have attracted 850 000 visitors since September 2006. They will be closing between January 14 and 28.
PARIS – According to the figures given by the daily newspaper Libération, the lease of the brand «Louvre» for the planed museum in Abou Dhabi could represent an income of 500 million euros for the French institution.
PARIS - The musée de l'Homme, gutted out of its ethnologic collections that were sent to the Quai Branly, will undergo a complete renovation. This will be entrusted to the Brochet, Lajus, Peyo and Nebout team (already known for their work on the musée Fabre in Montpellier). Works are to end by 2012 and will cost 50 million euros.
ONARTOFTHEDAY
this week do not miss
Hammershoi and Dreyer
BARCELONA - The Contemporary Culture Centre will bring together in one same exhibition two of th emost important Danish artists: the painter Hammershoi (1864-1916) and movie director Dreyer (1889-1968). By showing facing each other the paintings of the former and the movies of the latter, among them The Passion of Joan of Arc and Gertrud, the exhibit explores the analogies between them: science of light, a taste for internal universes, fascination for silence and death.