PRESS RELEASE
”Constellations” Exhibition
17/05/14 TO 31/08/14
Constellations
DU 17 MAI 2014 AU 31 Août 2014
FONDS RÉGIONAL D’ART CONTEMPORAIN DU NORD-PAS DE CALAIS, DUNKIRK
Exhibition 1 – Ground floor
Opening: 17 May 2014
Curator: HILDE TEERLINCK
Suggestions of material for galactic
exploration: stars, suns, moons, spectres,
waves, evocations of the Milky Way
and of clouds in the celestial sphere.
These objects orbit in the interstellar
exhibition CONSTELLATIONS.
Lisa Oppenheim, Lunagram (XI), 1851/2010, silver gelatin
photogramme. Frac Nord-Pas de Calais collection / Courtesy of the
artist and Klosterfelde, Berlin
WITH :
Prudencio Irazabal, Ann Veronica
Janssens, Peter Joseph, Veronique
Joumard, Bouchra Khalili, Bernd
Lohaus, Stephen Maas, Lisa Oppenheim,
Panamarenko, Roman Signer, Hiroshi
Sugimoto, Gilberto Zorio
The body of work chosen for this
exhibition is an opportunity to
present recent acquisitions such as The
Constellations (2011) by the Moroccan
artist Bouchra Khalili and Lunagram
(I-VI) (1851-2010) by the American
artist Lisa Oppenheim, works with a
scenographic connection to others in
the Frac Nord-Pas de Calais collection
for more than a decade, such as Per
purificare le parole (1978), a star in terra
cotta and steel by the Italian artist
Gilberto Zorio. Work in all media are
brought together to create a unique
discourse, such as Panamarenko’s bookobject Toymodel of Space (1993) and
model for the spacecraft Verti-vortex
(1981) and the French artist Véronique
Joumard’s photographs Lunes, Soleils
(1993), depicting the day’s opposite
moments and eliminating the possible
ways of moving from one to the other.
While scientists study relations of
scale, from the particle to matter, the
German artist Bernd Lohaus’ Micht
(1979) and Nichts (1979), for example,
bring us back to our own existence in a
predefined space-time.
The exhibition CONSTELLATIONS
is conceived as a source of
interpenetrations between art and
science. The relation to matter, ways
of looking at the world and the
construction of knowledge are the
points of contact and topics of dialogue
between these fields, interrogating
the beginning and the end of their
histories whose paths cross. As in the
night sky, the traces produced by the
alignments of stars form constellations
which sometimes seem familiar. The
works selected invoke a feeling of the
infinite sublime. Like the cosmology
behind numerous theorems and
so many articles by generations of
scientists, works of art have brought
about convergent and divergent ideas.
The exhibition’s itinerary is not fixed –
not in the history of the works and
not in the space they occupy in the
exhibition. The perceptive experience
sets in motion complex machinery,
wavering between acceptance and
incomprehension.
Here, a reception practice is privileged.
While constellations have been
the objects of measurement and
attention for centuries, they are still
not really well known. Observers of
the skies, who until now have used
only the shapes formed by stars to
identify them, can now go beyond
mere appearances and confront these
‘elementary particles’ thanks to the
multiple visions offered up by the
works in the Frac Nord-Pas de Calais
collection.
PRESS RELEASE
”Constellations” Exhibition
17/05/14 TO 31/08/14
ELSEWHERE AT THE FRAC/AP2
Belvedere
Level
Forum
Level
VITRINE
CINema
Level
Level
6
5
4
3
Salon
HALLE
A P2
expo 2
Level
expo 1
Level
2
1
Starting in 2014, the programming in
the FRAC/AP2’s exhibition galleries
will become autonomous. Here is a
summary of upcoming events in the
different spaces.
EXPO 2: The EXPO 2 space,
whose walls are covered with Latifa
Echakhch semi-permanent installation
A chaque stencil une révolution, invites
Isa Genzken’s work Blick to join the
dialogue between the semi-permanent
Café furniture by the designers
Lang/ Baumann, Module #3 and
Beautiful Curtain #1, and Gabriel Kuri’s
cloakroom-work Items in Care of Items.
SALON: Matthew Darbyshire’s semipermanent installation The Soft Shape
Room will host presentations of work
from the collections of individuals and
partner institutions, such as a selection of
objects representative of the personality
of Valentine Vanesse, author of the blog
www.helloitsvalentine.fr; the exhibition
‘Modes appliquées’, which will include
textiles and children’s toys on loan
from the Château de Louvignies (BE);
personal effects of youth in the region as
part of a novel presentation organised by
Morgan Pavaut entitled ‘Les essentiels’.
VITRINE: This space, devoted to the
FRAC’s off-site projects, will present
numerous exhibitions: ‘Using Images’
brings together a body of work from the
Centre
Régional de la Photographie Nord-Pas
de Calais in Douchy-les-Mines on the
topic of re-appropriation (curator: Erik
Verhagen, art historian); a Carte Blanche
to the photographer Marie-Noël Boutin
by invitation of the Château Coquelle
in Rosendaël; an exhibition organised
by an association in Lille of independent
curators on the topic of immigration; and
works by young artists in every discipline.
CINEMA: Every two weeks, visitors
will be able to discover a unique video
or programmes of three to ten different
videos. These are from the Frac NordPas de Calais collection, but also from
the Centre Régional de la Photographie
Nord-Pas de Calais in Douchy-lesMines, Fresnoy – Studio national des
arts contemporains in Tourcoing, SMAK
in Ghent (BE), Argos – Centre for Art
and Media in Brussels (BE), and the
Musée des Arts Contemporains of the
Fédération Wallonie-Bruxelles (MACs) in
Boussu (BE).
FORUM: This space will host the second
FRAC Nord-Pas de Calais thematic
exhibition, ‘New Generation’. Built
around the implicit premises involved in
passing from childhood to adulthood,
from 17 May to 31 December this
exhibition will bring together a selection
of work around four themes: teenage
music, rebellion, fashion and passions.
PRESS RELEASE
”Constellations” Exhibition
17/05/14 TO 31/08/14
INFORMATION
Address of the Frac :
503 Avenue des Bancs de Flandres
59140 Dunkirk, France
[email protected]
www.fracnpdc.fr
CONTACTS:
COORDINATION ET
RELATIONS PRESSE
Agence Heymann Renoult
Associées
Presse nationale, régionale
et internationale
—
Sarah Heymann et Eléonora
Alzetta
e.alzetta@heymann-renoult.
com
www.heymann-renoult.com
+33 (0)1 44 61 76 76
Presse anglaise
—
Agence Arts Europe
Kathryn Hone
[email protected]
+44 (0) 783 3595 626
How to Get to the
Frac:
By Car (from the highway):
A16/E40: exit 62 Dunkerque
Centre – follow “Pôle Art
Contemporain: FRAC–LAAC”
A25: follow RN 225 – at the
roundabout follow “Pôle Art
Contemporain: FRAC–LAAC”
By Bus (from Dunkirk train
station):
Line 8 (the “Escale” stop)
Partners:
Support for Frac Nord-Pas
de Calais comes from the
Ministère de la Culture et de
la Communication/Direction
générale de la création artistique,
the Direction régionale des affaires
culturelles Nord-Pas de Calais,
the Conseil Régional Nord-Pas
de Calais, the Dunkerque Grand
Littoral/Communauté urbaine, the
Ville de Dunkerque, the Conseil
Général du Nord, the Conseil
Général du Pas-de-Calais and the
Rectorat de l’Académie de Lille.