Art Of The Day Weekly
#285 - from 10 January 2013 to 16 January 2013
The MuCEM © Lisa Ricciotti
IN THE AIR
Marseille, European Capital of Culture: 10 iconic events
Marseille has been a candidate since March 2004 and on 12 May 2009 it was officially named European Capital of Culture 2013, together with the Slovak city of Kosice and they will follow Guimaraes and Maribor, before Riga and Umea in 2014. The administrators of the major Mediterranean city must prove now that they are as worthy of this honor as the last French representative, the city of Lille in 2004. That mandate was a real success. Hundreds of events have been programmed – visual arts, music, cinema, theatre, etc. – as well as the opening or re-openings of top rate museums. Rather than concentrating in one single giant fire-works, these openings will be scheduled throughout the year, thus encouraging certain pessimistic souls to accuse them of being behind schedule. It is not easy to run away from a cliché. Here are but a few samples of the greater moments.
1 The opening weekend, 12 & 13 January 2013
Just like the Cultural year itself, it will not take place in Marseille alone but rather on a much wider territory. It starts in Aix-en-Provence with an itinerary of contemporary art, will continue with 120 treasure hunts, from Gardanne to Istres, and will end in Marseille with an uproar and a pyrotechnical show by the Groupe F.
De Byzance à Istanbul, animation film by Dimitri Stankowicz © Dimitri Stankowicz / production Marseille-Provence 2013
2 Mediterraneans, 12 January to 18 May
This exhibition reviews the history and culture of eleven major Mediterranean cities, including of course Marseille as well as Tyr, Athens, Istanbul, Tunis or Cordoba. It is staged in a very original manner in a warehouse (J1) on the Port of Joliette, inside black metal containers.
Youssef Nabil, Self-portrait, Marseille 2011 (Detail) Production Marseille-Provence 2013 © ADAGP Paris 2013 / Courtesy of the Artist and Nathalie Obadia Gallery, Paris/Brussels.
3 Here, elsewhere, 12 January to 31 March
This is the other major inaugural exhibition that will be held in this site no one can classify, the Friche la Belle de Mai. Formerly occupied by tobacco and sugar warehouses, the Belle de Mai will show off a new Tour-Panorama for this special event. The exhibition will bring together forty contemporary artists from all around the Mediterranean, including in particular Kader Attia, Gilles Barbier and Mounir Fatmi.
4 Matta, Surrealism and history, 15 February to 19 May
The Cantini museum will host this retrospective of the Chilean artist (1911-2002), a rebel Surrealist, the companion of communists, the defender of various causes, among them the Rosenberg couple, victims of MacCarthysm and executed in 1953, and the father of a whole family of artists: Gordon Matta-Clark, Federica Matta and Ramuntcho Matta. Over sixty paintings and various works on paper will be presented
Perspective Musee Regards de Provence ouest 2013 © Atelier9-imagoprod
5 Opening of the FRAC and the museum Regards de Provence
In what used to be the Sewage treatment Station designed by Fernand Pouillon, the museum Regards de Provence will open on 3 March by presenting a part of its collection of Provence paintings. As for the new building designed by Kengo Kuma for the Fonds régional d’art contemporain, with its façade covered with hundreds of glass fragments, it will not be ready for the opening date. Delays in the construction site have pushed forward its opening to an undetermined date.
6 This is (not) music, 3 May to 9 June
This original proposition at the Friche la Belle de Mai will not last long but it is nevertheless quite ambitious. Over 40 000 square meters, it will offer a surprising mix of current music, urban sports, street art and all expressions of the most contemporary urban cultures.
7 Opening of the Musée d'Histoire and of the ancient port, June
Marseille is proud of its age and pays tribute to its Greek and Roman roots: necropolis, paved road, remains of boats and over 40 000 different objects trace, in the district of the Bourse, 30 000 years of human presence, since the grotto of Cosquer, and over 25 centuries of urban life. Just before, in May, the municipality will inaugurate in the castle of Borély another institution, the Musée des arts décoratifs, with porcelain and fashion, beautiful ceramics, furniture and an interesting Chanel section.
8 The great workshop of the Midi, 13 June to 13 October
This greatly awaited summer event is divided between the musée Granet of Aix-en-Provence that will inaugurate its extension, and the palais Longchamp of Marseille, the delirious water tower and musée des Beaux Arts that has just undergone an extended renovation. The exhibition studies over nearly one century (1880-1960) the attraction the landscapes and light of the South represented for artists of all origins. We see of course Van Gogh, Cézanne and Picasso. But Dubuffet, Modigliani, Man Ray and Graham Sutherland are also concerned.
9 Opening of the MUCEM, end of Spring
This is the newest, most awaited installation of the cultural year, the heir –though very transformed- of the former Parisian museum of Arts et Traditions populaires. In a net designed by architect Rudy Ricciotti, the Musée des civilisations de l’Europe et de la Méditerranée aims at showing the Grande Bleue as a space that is open and has shared over the centuries while remaining sensitive to contemporary creation.
10 Le Corbusier and the question of Brutalism, 11 October to 12 January 2014
The exhibition dedicated to the designer of the Cité radieuse (that one can visit and where one may stay in the hotel Le Corbusier, located on the 3rd floor) will wrap up the cultural year. It will be the second major event at the J1 warehouse, whose future use has not yet been determined. The exhibition remains faithful to the ambition of synthesis of the arts that guided Le Corbusier and will present paintings, works on paper, photographs, even enamels and tapestries of the architect’s last thirty years of creativity in all directions (1933-1965).
THESE EXHIBITIONS OPEN THIS WEEK IN EUROPE
Schmidt and the derivatives of the food processing industry
BERLIN - Born in 1945, photographer Michael Schmidt spent these last years investigating on the excesses of the European food processing industry, from the fish farms in Norway to the German industrial bakeries, including the plants in Italy to transform apples. The Martin-Gropius-Bau shows a selection of this work. From 12 January to 1 April 2013.
The Wild West as seen by Adams
MADRID - Robert Adams , born in 1937, is a photographer who used the myth of the Wild West as his favorite theme. The Reina Sofía museum dedicates a retrospective to 40 years of creation. From 16 January to 20 May 2013.
In the beginning was the line
METZ - Under the title Une brève histoire des lignes, the Centre Pompidou examines the simplest of artistic signs; the line, with the help of Kandinsky, Marcel Duchamp or John Cage (ill. Sylvia Bächli, Sans titre XIX, 2007, MNAM, © Sylvia Bächli et MNAM). From 11 January to 1 April 2013.
The nuggets of Pont-Aven
RUEIL-MALMAISON - In Les peintres de Pont-Aven, autour de Gauguin, the Atelier Grognard presents a wealthy selection from private collections. Next to the mandatory Emile Bernard and Paul Sérusier, one will rediscover artists that are less shown such as Emile Jourdan (ill. Clair de lune à la chapelle Lanriot, coll. part., Private Collection© Bernard Galéron), Henry Moret ou Maxime Maufra. From 12 January to 8 April 2013.
OPENINGS OF THE WEEK
IN BRIEF
LONDON-The London Art Fair, specialized in modern and contemporary British art will be held from 16 to 20 January 2013 at the Islington Business Center
PARIS - The New Art Fair, the contemporary art fair that brings together 30 galleries with an accent on emerging creators and urban arts, will be held from 11 to 13 January 2013 at the Espace Pierre Cardin.
PARIS - Henri Loyrette, at the head of the Louvre museum since 2001, had announced on 17 December last year that he will not seek a new mandate once the current one finishes in April 2013. The museum has just announced it has reached the ceiling of 10 million visitors in 2012.
PARIS - Jack Lang, the former minister of Culture under President François Mitterand, has been mentioned as the future president of the Institut du monde arabe.
STOCKOLM - The Art Loss Register, the main data base o stolen works of art, has announced that Le Jardin, a painting by Matisse and stolen in 1987 at the Moderna Museet, has been found again.
VENISE - Dutch architect Rem Koolhaas has been named commissary of teh next Biennale of architecture of Venice, to be held from 7 June to 23 November 2014.