WANDER
LABYRINTHINE
VARIATIONS
PRESS PACK
12.09.11 > 05.03.12
centrepompidou-metz.fr
PRESS PACK - WANDER, LABYRINTHINE VARIATIONS
TABLE OF CONTENTS
1. INTRODUCTION TO THE EXHIBITION.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 02
2. THE EXHIBITION
I The labyrinth AS architecture... . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 03
II Space / Time. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 03
III The mental labyrinth. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 04
IV Metropolis... . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 05
V Kinetic dislocation.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 06
VI Captive. ..... . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 07
VII Initiation / Enlightenment. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 08
VIII Art as labyrinth.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 09
3. LIST OF EXHIBITED ARTISTS. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
4. LINEAGES, LABYRINTHINE DETOURS - WORKS,
HISTORICAL AND ARCHAEOLOGICAL ARTEFACTS. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12
5. COMMISSIONED WORKS.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
6. EXHIBITION DESIGN.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15
7. THE LENDERS. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16
8. THE CATALOGUE... . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17
9. THE EXHIBITION GAME:
LABYRINT* IN A VALISE (*H)... . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18
10. CREDITS.. ... . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19
11. events aND PERFORMANCES... . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21
12. PARTNER VENUES. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24
13. VISITOR INFORMATION.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25
14. PATRONS AND PARTNERS. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26
15. PRESS VISUALS... . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27
01
PRESS PACK - WANDER, LABYRINTHINE VARIATIONS
1.
INTRODUCTION
TO THE EXHIBITION
Wander, Labyrinthine Variations follows
Masterpieces ? as the second major thematic
exhibition at the Centre Pompidou-Metz.
Beyond its historical references, Wander, Labyrinthine
Variations sets out to represent certain contemporary
aesthetic, political and intellectual trends of our era. It
addresses the history of forms and ideas by challenging
a strictly linear model or progressive vision. Instead, it
multiplies possibilities, draws the visitor into zones of
confusion, multiple choices and lays obstacles to our
apprehending of what is real, with all that this implies
in terms of adventurous speculation and uncertainty.
Wander, Labyrinthine Variations is an international
group exhibition, which takes its cue from the
model of the labyrinth, tackling the notions of
straying, loss and wandering as well as their
various representations in contemporary art.
Mystical, archaic forms, labyrinths and mazes are
examined here as metaphors. They form complex figures
that associate the image of non-linear progression
through bends, curves, repentance and returns… whether
architectural, mental, economic or structural in nature.
The show itself is organised thematically according
to a sinusoidal principle that follows the detours
and polysemy of the subject itself, offering a loss of
reference both figuratively as well as formally. It veers
from an architectural maze to thoughtful meandering,
from global political-economic chaos to disorientated
contemporary urbanism, from bodily spatial confinement
to maieutics, from exploded narration in cinema or
literature to geometric abstraction as an eye-catcher.
Unfolded on 2,000 square metres across two of the gallery
spaces at Centre Pompidou-Metz, the exhibition shows
different generations of French and international artists,
alongside major works from the Centre Pompidou, Musée
national d'art moderne in Paris and important international
collections. There will also be specific commissions by Matt
Mullican, Public Space With a Roof and re-enacted pieces
by Gianni Colombo, Gianni Pettena and Julio Le Parc.
Wander, Labyrinthine Variations is also a game in the form
of an enigma - Labyrint* in a Valise (*h) - elaborated
by the independent curator, Jean de Loisy.
The exhibition is presented in eight themed
parts, which develop the subject from an angle
that is both conceptual and sensory.
Painting, architecture, penetrable works, sculptures,
films, maps and archaeological artefacts offer as
many different perspectives on, and immersions
in, these curious and surprising worlds.
THE CURATORS
Hélène Guenin
Head of Programming Department
at the Centre Pompidou-Metz
Guillaume Désanges
Curator, Art Critic, Director of Work Method
Hélène Guenin was appointed Head of programming at
the Centre Pompidou-Metz in November 2008. Alongside
Laurent Le Bon, she supervises exhibition projects and
parallel programming in the Wendel Auditorium and the
Studio.
Prior to this, from 2002 to 2008, she worked with Béatrice
Josse at the Fonds régional d'art contemporain in Lorraine.
02
Guillaume Désanges has curated numerous exhibitions
in France and internationally. He is the director of Work
Method, an independent production entity. Between 2001
and 2007, he coordinated artistic activity at
Les Laboratoires in Aubervilliers. In 2007-2008
he was head of programming at La Tôlerie Arts Centre
in Clermont-Ferrand. Since 2009, and until 2011,
he has been guest curator at Le Plateau-Frac Ile de France
arts centre in Paris for a series of exhibitions entitled
Érudition Concrète.
PRESS PACK - WANDER, LABYRINTHINE VARIATIONS
2.
THE EXHIBITION
I - The labyrinth AS architecture
The labyrinth originates in architecture. Greek mythology
popularised the concept with the Minotaur, a creature
that is half-man, half-bull, imprisoned in a construction
so complex that no one can find their way out. Invented
by Daedalus, the original labyrinth was thus based on
paradox: how can a rational, methodical structure produce
confusion, disorientation and wandering? Modern-day
architects and artists have considered these questions
anew, and imagined principles based on broken lines,
twists and turns, tangles and bulges. This part of the
exhibition looks at practices which are both programmatic
and decorative, and which break with the readability of
straight lines.
Yona Friedman
Étude pour la ville
spatiale,1958-1959
Project
Photocopy and felt tip pen
on paper
29.7 x 42 cm
Centre Pompidou, Paris
Collection Musée national
d’art moderne / Centre de
création industrielle
Gift from the architect, 1992
© Adagp, Paris 2011 / Collection Centre Pompidou, Dist.
RMN / Philippe Migeat
Kazimir Malevich
(according to)
Suprematist
Ornaments,
1927-2002
Reconstructed by Poul Pedersen
7 original parts and 11
reconstructed parts mounted
on a plate
Plaster
27.5 x 45 x 60 cm
Centre Pompidou, Paris
Musée national d’art
moderne / Centre de création
industrielle
Kasimir Malevitch
© Adagp, Paris 2011 /
Collection Centre Pompidou,
Dist. RMN / Philippe Migeat
Painter of Black Cross and Suprematist Composition: White on White, two
major works of the avant-garde abstract movement, Kazimir Malevich
turned to geometry and volume in the 1920s, during Suprematism's "white
phase." In 1926-1927, in Leningrad, Malevich produced a series of models
which he called Architektons. They include Bêta and Suprematist
Ornaments. The way the various plaster shapes align arose from the artist's
study of the effects of moving a square to different positions to produce
rhomboid shapes of various lengths. The cube, considered the "point zero"
of architecture, becomes the minimum unit, the perfect volume, divest
of all concrete purpose, multiplying and proliferating in space. Henceforth,
Malevich's three-dimensional work was permeated with the fundamental
question of how to include the body in a white and immaterial abstraction
of architecture. These two symbols of Malevich's three-dimensional work
were reconstructed by Danish artist Poul Pedersen in 1978.
II - Space / Time
Yona Friedman
Architect Yona Friedman was born in Budapest and has lived in Paris since
the late 1950s. Early on in his career, Friedman sought to distance himself
from the intensive constructions of the post-war era. He founded the Groupe
d'Architecture Mobile (GEAM), whose "mobile architecture" places the user
firmly at the centre of the design, in contrast to previous and existing views
which, Friedman believed, tended to see users almost as an irrelevance,
or at best an abstract identity.
The "spatial city" utopia, which is illustrated in this series of drawings,
seeks to give form to the basic tenets of mobile architecture. Friedman's
adaptable, non-prescriptive structures allow for individual expression
and for groups to choose their preferred layouts through a grid structure
in which walls and space alternate and exchange: "The city, as a
mechanism, is nothing other than a labyrinth: a configuration of starting
points and destinations, separated by obstacles".
The project's utopian dimension appears in these drawings of cities which
might appear more at home in works of fiction, so far removed are they from
conventional architectural plans. We are offered a fantasy as food
for thought, an object of beauty and inspiration for new ways of living
in the cities of the modern world.
1. Quoted in Architecture Expérimentale, 1950-2000, Marie-Anne Brayer (ed.) Collection Frac-Centre,
Orléans, Hyx, 2003, p. 214.
The labyrinth is the archetypal space that generates
time. Inside the labyrinth, times feels warped in a
succession of detours that bring us back to our starting
point. In mathematics, spirals, loops and Möbius strips
are the physical embodiment of this paradoxical progress
through space and time. Each of the works and projects
in this section identify with this highly specific dynamic
immobility or involution, examples of which are also
found in the natural world, in seashells and nebulae,
from mystical wanderings to the revolving planets.
Frederick Kiesler
Exterior view of the
Endless House model,
1958
Photograph
Gelatin silver print
25.4 x 20.3 cm
Photograph: George Barrows
Architecture & Design Study
Center
The Museum of Modern Art,
New York
© 2011 Austrian Frederick and
Lillian Kiesler Private Foundation, Vienne / Photo: 2011.
Digital image, The Museum of
Modern Art, New York/Scala,
Florence
03
PRESS PACK - WANDER, LABYRINTHINE VARIATIONS
Frederick Kiesler
Artist, architect, architectural theorist and member of the De Stjil group,
throughout the inter-war period Kiesler developed and defended a style
of architecture that was radically opposed to the prevailing functionalism;
a style that embraced suspensions, curves, sensuality and mobility, in direct
contrast with the all-pervading perpendicular. Kiesler was the undisputed
pioneer of spirals and continuity in architecture. "In 1924-1925, I eliminated
separations in house-building, that is the distinction between floor, walls
and ceiling, and I created a single continuum of floor, walls and ceiling."
Towards the late 1920s, he began work on Endless House, a project that
would occupy him for virtually the rest of his life. This continuous, eggshaped structure suggests a cave, a seashell, even the organic. Indeed,
the project developed, grew and changed over time as though it too were
a living organism. Drawings, photographs, models, poems and painting
illustrate these 40 years of research. They are shown alongside the models
on exceptional loan from the MoMA and the Whitney Museum of American
Art in New York.
Robert Smithson
Spiral Jetty, 1970
16mm film, colour, audio,
running time 32'
Centre Pompidou, Paris
Musée national d’art
moderne / Centre de création
industrielle
Acquisition, 1975
© Adagp, Paris, 2011 /
Collection Centre Pompidou,
Dist. RMN / image Centre
Pompidou
Mike Kelley
Educational Complex
(detail),1995
Various materials
146.7 x 488.2 x 244.2 cm
Whitney Museum of American
Art, New York
Acquired with funds from
the Contemporary Painting
and Sculpture Committee
Courtesy of the artist
Photo: Göran Örtegren
Mike Kelley
Educational Complex resembles an architect's model but is in fact a form
of autobiography as Kelley has assembled the buildings – home, school,
church, etc. - that have played a significant part in his life. All symbols
of authority, they trigger thoughts on individual trauma and repressed
memories. Empty spaces have deliberately been left in the buildings
to represent gaps in the memory. Beyond references to psychoanalysis
and the Freudian subconscious, the amalgam of buildings in Educational
Complex touches on recent debates in the cognitive sciences, in particular
the evolutionary theory which states that the human mind consists of a large
number of semi-independent units. Kelley invites observers to get lost
in this labyrinth of inaccessible blocks, maybe even slip, voyeur-like,
underneath to see the basement at Cal Arts, where Kelley was a student.
Educational Complex also plays with the suspended volumes around it,
reminders of the mobiles that hang above a baby's cot.
Thomas Hirschhorn
and Marcus Steinweg
The Map of Friendship
between Art
and Philosophy…,
2007
Cardboard, paper, plastic
sheet, clear tape, prints,
photocopies, marker, ballpoint
240 x 400 cm
Robert Smithson
Robert Smithson's Spiral Jetty was built on Great Salt Lake in Utah in April
1970. It is a 500-metre long, five-metre wide spiral made of mud, salt
crystals and rocks. An icon of land art, this "outside-the-gallery" sculpture
results from a direct experience of the environment.
In the corresponding film, Smithson narrates how the work was created,
and describes a staggering number of references. It begins with a closeup of the molten surface of the sun, followed by an alternating sequence
of maps and stacks of books (including The Lost World, and Mazes and
Labyrinths). After a sequence showing the actual building of the jetty,
the final part comprises a series of aerial views during which the helicopter
blades rhythmically whirr in time with the voice of the artist, whose
thoughts leap and twirl with the sunlight. As the camera whirls, it minutely
examines the spiral that blackly scars the vast shimmering surface
of the water - a mirror so often used by Smithson to question
our perception of reality. The spiral conveys the infinite and the off-centre;
it blurs our bearings as it coils around itself and unites opposites:
inside/outside, microcosm/macrocosm, immobility/movement,
appearance/disappearance.
III - The mental labyrinth
The structure of the human mind is often likened to
a labyrinth. In physical terms, the brain can be seen
as an inextricable network of neurons and synapses
while, metaphorically, "thinking is like entering a maze"
(Cornelius Castoriadis). In philosophy, wandering and
digression are necessary stages in the quest for truth.
The mental labyrinth encompasses knowledge, as well
as dreams and memory. It embodies the depths of
consciousness, from loss to revelation, through which
we attain the "light through darkness" which Henri
Michaux describes. Various ways of formalising thought
are assembled here, in the work of artists who map these
complex areas of the mind and invent new orders of ideas
and reality.
04
Stephen Friedman Gallery,
Londres
Thomas Hirschhorn
Courtesy of the artist and
Stephen Friedman Gallery,
London / Photo: Stephan White
The Maps, which the artist Thomas Hirschhorn has made with
the philosopher Marcus Steinweg, form a subjective panorama of western
philosophy. These map-pictures use fragile materials such as underlined
and annotated pages from books. The works, which have an aura of urgency
and necessity, visually portray the thought mechanisms of the likes
of Michel Foucault, Hannah Arendt and Spinoza, and the connections
they have established between concepts. Mapping philosophical thinking,
or indeed one's own thoughts as in MOI-MAP, implies entering a brain
at work; part system, part chaos. These works are based on the belief
that there is a direct, stimulating, vibrant connection between art
and thought. This first-ever showing of the complete collection of Maps
takes visitors inside the artist's thought processes in an all-encompassing
scenography.
Jacques Fabien
Gautier d’Agoty
Myologie complète
en couleur et
grandeur naturelle,
composée de l’Essai
et de la Suite
de l’Essai d’anatomie
en tableaux
par Gautier d’Agoty,
Anatomie de la tête,
1746
Coloured mezzotint
53.5 x 37 cm
Bibliothèques-Médiathèques
de Metz
© Bibliothèques-Médiathèques
de Metz / Département
Patrimoine
PRESS PACK - WANDER, LABYRINTHINE VARIATIONS
Agnes Denes
Snail Pyramid-Study
for Self-Contained,
Self-Supporting City
Dwelling – A Future
Habitat, 1988
moveable walls. The social lives of the residents of these cities of the future
become a game while the buildings, with their multiple interpretations,
become a flickering array of interacting desires. The labyrinth was
a constant source of inspiration for Constant even beyond his New Babylon
project, the archetype for both interior thought and for the unexpected,
the accidental.
Ian Breakwell
The Walking Man
diary, 1975-1978
Ink on clear millimetred
plastic film
98.4 x 145.4 cm
Black and white photographs
on paper, typed and handwritten texts on paper
123.3 x 615.9 x 1.9 cm
The Museum of Modern Art,
New York
Courtesy of the artist
Photo: © 2011. Digital image,
The Museum of Modern Art,
New York/Scala, Florence
Tate
Acquisition, 2001
Agnes Denes
A pioneering artist in land art and conceptual art, Agnes Denes' practice
is a crossover between science and art. Her interventions in landscape
and nature are indicative of her belief in the importance of art as a trigger
for social change: "A well-conceived work can motivate people, unite
communities, and affect the future,” she writes. This is the erudite line
of thought that lies behind the artist's inroads into politics. Mathematics,
natural science, philosophy, linguistics and social science are all grist
to her mill. The drawings in Wander bring to mind scientific documents,
blueprints and diagrams. They show us synthetic mathematical shapes
such as pyramids and triangles, and reveal her fascination with the spiral
motif, the perfect mathematical form, which recalls the golden ratio.
Agnes Denes sets out to chart human thought and language.
IV - Metropolis
Described by the poet Emile Verhaeren as "tentacular",
the modern city has much in common with the labyrinth.
Viewed from a distance, it resembles a comprehensible
network but once in its midst, this network reveals itself
to be an inextricable web of chaos. Thus it elicits new
behaviours – inadvertent or deliberate drifting, marginality
and dispersion – and becomes a new space for individual
adventure. Paul Citroen's Metropolis, which inspired Fritz
Lang's film, embodies the overwhelming, the dizzyingly
dense in much the same way as the Babylon of antiquity,
the symbol of power and authority. These mythical cities
inspire a new kind of artist-surveyor/cartographer. They
portray the complexity of the modern city, or approach it
as a playground and laboratory, part poetry, part social
deviance.
Constant
(Constant Anton
Nieuwenhuys,
known as)
Leiterlabyrinth, 1967
Brass, glass, acrylic, wood
72 x 86.5 x 96.6 cm
Friends of the Stiftung
Wilhelm Lehmbruck Museum,
Duisburg, Germany
© Adagp, Paris 2011 / Photo:
Lehmbruck Museum,
Duisburg, Allemagne
Constant Nieuwenhuys known as Constant
A Dutch artist and architect, Constant was a founding member of the Cobra
group of artists. From 1956 to 1974, he worked on a visionary architectural
project that he called New Babylon. Arising from Constant's involvement
with the Situationists, the project combined utopian and activist principles.
The inhabitants of this New Babylon move from place to place within
an endless network of "sectors" and, as they do, redefine each aspect
of their surroundings to their own wishes. Walls, floors, lighting, sounds,
colours, textures and smells constantly change in this infinite chain
of multi-level interior spaces that connect and propagate until they cover
the planet. The sectors float above the ground on top of tall columns, while
traffic rushes below and aeroplanes ply the skies above. Inhabitants move
around the labyrinthine interiors, continually reconstructing
their surroundings, altering the lighting and reconfiguring the temporary,
05
Ian Breakwell
© Tate, London 2011. Courtesy
The Estate of Ian Breakwell
and Anthony Reynolds Gallery,
London
The Walking Man Diary is a photographic record that the British artist
Ian Breakwell made between 1975 and 1978. From the window of
his London flat, Breakwell watched a man's daily drifting through the tumult
of Smithfield Market. With bowed head, the unknown man would walk
the streets, with no apparent purpose but to follow the same twisting,
turning route. Over a period of three years, the artist, who was interested
in the observation and surveillance of social deviance, sequentially recorded
the enigmatic path travelled by this man on the fringes of society. Breakwell
takes the stance of a critical observer of normality, as defined and imposed
by society. The Walking Man Diary is presented as a series of collages
that chart the physical and mental wanderings of this unknown man over
a given time frame. In 1977 the walking man disappeared. He reappeared
in 1978, walking more slowly. He disappeared for good in 1979.
Paul Citroen
Metropolis, 1923
Reproduction
76 x 59 cm
Leiden University Library,
The Netherlands
© Adagp, Paris 2011 / Photo:
University Library Leiden,
the Netherlands
PRESS PACK - WANDER, LABYRINTHINE VARIATIONS
V - Kinetic dislocation
This part of the exhibition considers experiences
of loss in its physical and optical dimensions. From
the 1950s, kinetic artists began to conduct plastic research
into movement, whether achieved mechanically by
the observer's movement, or resulting from the material's
own inner vibration. These necessarily interactive works
elicit feelings of illusion and disorientation, halfway
between giddiness and wonder. They use extremely simple
mechanisms to produce momentous disorientation
of perception. They are shown with films that associate
the kinetic experience with psychological confusion.
Julio Le Parc
Continuel-lumière
cylindre, 1962
Various materials
171 x 122 x 35 cm
Artist's collection
© Adagp, Paris 2011. Daros
Latinamerica Collection,
Zürich / Photo : Adrian Fritschi,
Zürich
Gianni Colombo
Spazio elastico,
1967 - 1968
Reactivation
Engine, elastic threads
400 x 400 x 400 cm
Archivio Gianni Colombo,
Milan
Courtesy Archivio Gianni
Colombo, Milan.
Photo: Eckart Schuster,
droits réservés
Gianni Colombo
Part of a flourishing art scene in Milan, Gianni Colombo came
to international attention in the 1950s and 1960s as one of arte ambientale's
most iconic figures. Significantly influenced by Lucio Fontana, he saw
works of art as participatory objects that demand interaction with their
audience. He was one of the founding members of Gruppo T, a collective
that invited the public to "co-create" its exhibitions. The movement of the
alveolar cylinders of Strutturazione acentrica (1962) produces a kinetic
effect, sometimes caused by the deplacement of the spectators themselves.
Varying in size and colour, these mobile sculptures produce an unceasing
cycle of light waves that flow along their walls. Installed for the first time in
1967, Spazio Elastico is an immersive environment, comprising a dark space
criss-crossed by fluorescent elastic threads. Inside the installation, the
observer slowly becomes aware of this kinetic light device that disorientates
and at the same time instils a feeling of sensorial wonderment.
Julio Le Parc
As a leading exponent of kinetic art, the work of Julio Le Parc features
prominently in the exhibition.
From 1960, Le Parc was an active member of the GRAV research group into
visual art, alongside François Morellet, Horacio Garcia Rossi and Francisco
Sobrino, Pierre Yvaral and Joël Stein. The group's projects advocate active
or involuntary participation on the part of the spectator, and simplicity
of form. Between 1963 and 1967, GRAV installed four labyrinth-exhibitions
in museums and public spaces. The group was drawn to the labyrinth not
only as a means of creating an alternate space within the museum,
but because its very form favours the concept of a path or route,
and the introduction of a playful, sensory approach to the work.
The labyrinth thus becomes a space where new sensations are offered
and the senses repeatedly elicited. It is a space that is experienced
and perhaps, on occasion, endured, as the visitor becomes actively involved
with the works and the unfolding path. The group was dissolved in 1968.
Julio Le Parc, meanwhile, has continued his research into light.
Part of Galerie 1 is set aside for Le Parc, who has installed large-scale
works in rooms plunged into darkness. Visitors are invited to enter
the installations and experience light as a constantly changing work
of art. Places of distraction, contemplation and meditation, Le Parc's works
disorient the visitor as the diffraction and scintillation of prisms of light
blur visual bearings.
Julio Le Parc was awarded the Grand Prix for painting at the 1966 Venice
Biennale for his light installations.
06
Henri-Georges
Clouzot
La Prisonnière, 1968
35 mm film transferred to
video, colour, audio
Running time: 101'40”
Studio Canal
La Prisonnière © 1968
StudioCanal - Fono Roma
PRESS PACK - WANDER, LABYRINTHINE VARIATIONS
VI - Captive
Gego (Gertrud
Goldschmidt,
known as)
Reticulárea
1972
The fundamental paradox of the labyrinth lies
in its twofold purpose: to imprison and simultaneously
protect the Minotaur. An insidious, open, constantly
shifting prison, the labyrinth allows a certain degree
of freedom while controlling from afar. The inability
to fully comprehend where a space begins and ends,
the loss of bearings and the absence of any map produce
a feeling of confused claustrophobia, no matter how many
perspectives the labyrinth seemingly opens. Like a spider's
web, this complex architecture is a trap that encircles,
closes in on and ultimately suffocates. The labyrinth
thus elicits ambivalent responses, part protection and part
conditioning, as well as magnificent and also desperate
attempts to escape.
Rem Koolhaas, Madelon
Vriesendorp, Zoe
Zenghelis, Elia Zenghelis
Exodus or the Voluntary
Prisoners of Architecture
Exhausted Fugitives Led
to Reception, project, 1972
Installation made of 18 gelatine silver
proofs, gouache, watercolour, paper
148 x 915 cm (total dimensions)
The Museum of Modern Art, New York
Gift from Patricia Phelps de Cisneros,
Takeo Ohbayashi and Susan de Menil
acquisition fund
Rem Koolhaas
© Adagp, Paris 2011 / Photo: 2011
Digital image, The Museum of Modern
Art, New York / Scala, Florence
In 1972, the Dutch architect and theorist Rem Koolhaas (RK) produced
a series of 18 drawings, watercolours and collages entitled Exodus,
or The Voluntary Prisoners of Architecture. Created against a backdrop
of political tension, it is a portrait of the psychological and symbolic effects
of the Berlin wall, which RK describes as being "infinitely more powerful"
than the object (the wall) itself. The decision to build the wall was made
in 1961 to physically separate Germany and the allied forces from the
Soviet Union, after the Second World War. Its purpose was to stem
population movements and exodus. The wall became the symbol of this
policy and of the tension inherent in the Cold War. Exodus is a critical and
uncompromising parody of political and utopian ideals. It is a fictional
account of a process to build a new area above an existing city – in this
instance an imaginary London. This new walled city becomes an object
of desire for those on the outside, but a gilded cage for its residents or
"voluntary prisoners." RK emphasises the power of architecture, and draws
our attention to its ambiguity and dangers.
In addition to this historical reference, Exodus is a critical study of the
capitalist system and productivity through theories of socialism that reject
the idea of labour. The inhabitants of this new city are freed from the
obligation to work; Exodus takes us inside a city divested of existing spatial,
social and economic relations, going as far as to abolish capital.
Piranese (Giovanni
Battista Piranese,
known as)
Carceri d’invenzione
(Prisons imaginaires),
1745-1761
Series of 16 etchings
56 x 79 cm each
Bibliothèques-Médiathèques
de Metz
© Bibliothèques-Médiathèques
de Metz / Département
Patrimoine
07
Exhibit view
Museo de Bellas Artes,
Caracas
© Archivo Fundación Gego
Photo Paolo Gasparini
Gertrud Goldschmidt, known as Gego
Gertrud Goldschmidt, commonly known as Gego, was born in Germany
but emigrated to Venezuela in 1939. Along with her Venezuelan compatriots
Alejandro Otero, Jesus Raphael Soto and Carlos Cruz Diez, she is one of
the most important artists from 1950s to 1970s. The kinetic movement
in Venezuela embodied the country's modernism and progressivism;
evolving on its margins, Gego's work is singular in its search for
the essential, its analytical dimension and its fragility. In 1965, Gego began
working with steel rods and wires to fill space with an evolutive geometry.
Her many reticuláreas show how she used her knowledge of mathematics
to support her quest for a shape that would be "as fleeting as it is magical."
Our vision is continually renewed by the exploded shapes and flowing,
shifting configurations that produce a completely new awareness of space.
Both her three-dimensional works and works on paper appear to trap
the spectator's vision in the intricate mesh of a net or a spider's web.
Wander presents a significant selection of Gego's work, which gained full
recognition in 1969 with her Reticulárea exhibition at the Museo de Bellas
Artes in Caracas.
Mona Hatoum
Light Sentence, 1992
Installation, 36 wire mesh
lockers, electric motor, timer,
light bulb, cables, electric wire
Various dimensions
Centre Pompidou, Paris
Musée national d’art
moderne / Centre de création
industrielle
State acquisition, 1994,
attributed to Centre Pompidou,
Paris
© Mona Hatoum, 2011 / Photo:
Collection Centre Pompidou,
Dist. RMN / Philippe Migeat
Mona Hatoum
Light Sentence, a play on words with life sentence, is one of Mona Hatoum's
early installations. It comprises stacks of wire mesh lockers of the type once
found in public baths and factory changing-rooms in England.
"I immediately could see the associative potential of this locker because
it looked more like a little animal cage that you would see in a lab
or a chicken factory. It also looked like an architectural model
of a skyscraper," she explains.Lighting is deliberately theatrical, consisting
of a single bulb in the centre of the installation that moves slowly up
and down. The wire mesh recalls the constant surveillance in prisons
and science labs. Light Sentence brings to mind the Panoptican imagined by
Jeremy Bentham in the eighteenth century, and which forms the basis
of Michel Foucault's analysis in Discipline and Punish (1975).
PRESS PACK - WANDER, LABYRINTHINE VARIATIONS
VII - Initiation / Enlightenment
As a sinuous path strewn with obstacles and trials,
the labyrinth has, from the very inception of the myth,
been associated with the initiatory quest, both spiritual
and physical. This concentric, spiralling progression has
a moral, even heroic, dimension, whether processional route
or symbol of wisdom, church labyrinth or Tibetan mandala.
One emerges from the labyrinth as another; it is a pretext
for a journey to self-knowledge. Finding one's way through
the labyrinth is like finding a path through life, with its
choices, hesitations and periods of wandering as we move
towards self-fulfilment. In contemporary art, this moral
dimension is sometimes portrayed metaphorically, within
the ordinary and the banal.
Maya Deren &
Alexander Hammid
Meshes of the
Afternoon, 1943
16mm black and white film,
audio, running time 13'
Centre Pompidou, Paris
Musée national d’art
moderne / Centre de création
industrielle
Acquisition, 1987
© Tavia Ito et droits réservés
pour Alexander Hammid
Maya Deren
Meshes of the Afternoon is a 1943 experimental short film, directed by Maya
Deren and her husband Alexander Hammid. Maya Deren plays the main
character who, in a waking dream, performs a series of symbolic actions.
Everyday objects such as a key, a knife, a flower, and a telephone play
a crucial role, and create an unsettling atmosphere. The key and the knife
repeatedly change places to finally become a weapon for suicide. One after
the other, these curious events form an endless dream. The film eschews
the conventions of linear narration and invites its audience to become lost
among the overlapping shots and sequences. Meshes of the Afternoon made
Maya Deren, who claimed Jean Cocteau as a major influence, the leading
artist in the field of New American Cinema. The film went on to inspire
other experimental filmmakers, such as Kenneth Anger and Stan Brakhage.
Plate from the
exhibition catalogue
Representations
of games of snakes
and ladders
Graphical design:
Les Associés réunis
08
Bas Jan Ader
In Search of the
Miraculous (one night
in Los Angeles),
1973-1975
Photographs and ink on paper
14 parts, 27.5 x 34.5 cm each
Kröller-Müller Museum,
Otterlo
© Bas Jan Ader, droits
réservés / Collection KröllerMüller Museum, Otterlo, PaysBas / Photo: Tom Haartsen
Bas Jan Ader
Bas Jan Ader's work resembles an existential quest, and represents
a subjective change of direction in conceptual art. In In Search of the
Miraculous (one night in Los Angeles), he spends the night walking in Los
Angeles, "that wild, romantic city where so many extremes come together."
The sequence of photographs from this performance presents a unity of
time, action and place. The long walk takes him from the city's suburbs
to the Pacific Ocean, the furthest point of his quest. The film is a homage
to his adopted home town and combines references to pop music culture,
Hollywood's film noir, and the photographic tradition of works that convey
the atmosphere of the city at night, such as Brassaï's photographs of Paris.
This, at times romantic, journey made in 1973, was intended to be the first
part of a trilogy. Shortly after, Ader set sail in a 13-foot pocket cruiser
to attempt a single-handed transatlantic crossing. Nine months later,
the wreck of the boat was found off the Irish coast.
PRESS PACK - WANDER, LABYRINTHINE VARIATIONS
VIII - Art as labyrinth
Avant-garde and modern artists challenged the idea,
inherited from the Renaissance, of representing the world
from a single perspective, or vanishing point.
The explosion of points of view on the surface
of the canvas, and the increasing abstraction of form, were
accompanied in experimental cinema by a corresponding
blurring of meaning and deconstruction of the linear
storyline. The empty space created between meaning
and form is the very place of vertigo. Thus a work of art
becomes a conceptual, sensual labyrinth where we can lose
ourselves. It is a complex, auto-referential structure, the
experience of which defies all reason, yet which brings us
to a new form of understanding.
Art & Language
(Michael Baldwin
and Mel Ramsden)
Index : Incident in a
Museum – Francisco
Sabate, 1986
Acrylic on canvas
176 x 274.5 cm
Fonds régional d’art
contemporain de MidiPyrénées, les Abattoirs,
Toulouse
Deposited at les Abattoirs,
Toulouse
Acquired from the artists, 1986
Art & Language
© Art & Language / photo:
J-L. Auriol
Between 1985 and 1987, Michael Baldwin and Mel Ramsden created Incident
in a Museum, a series of pictures depicting galleries in an imaginary
modern art museum. The two artists had been working together as part
of the Art & Language collaboration since late 1976, and were now ready
to reintroduce painting as their core practice, after a decade producing
mostly text works. The paintings in the Incident in a Museum series closely
resemble interior views of, hypothetically, the Whitney Museum of American
Art; the observer can even make out, among the overlapping maze
of spaces, the reflection of the very work they are looking at. Index: Incident
in a Museum XV (1986) shows a gallery in the museum with a horizontal
picture-rail, from which hangs a picture that exactly reproduces the
layout of the series. Mel Ramsden and Michael Baldwin use this device to
present a dizzying mise en abyme of the museum, substituting continually
subdividing architecture for works of modern art.
09
Guy de Cointet
The Tattoing on his
back…, vers 1982
Ink on Arches paper
78 x 92 x 3.5 cm
Collection Air de Paris, Paris
Guy de Cointet estate
© Succession Guy de Cointet
Courtesy Air de Paris, Paris
Guy de Cointet
French-born artist Guy de Cointet emigrated to the United States in the late
1960s, where he developed a body of work that explores the possibilities
offered by language and text, via an enigmatic narrative style. A littleknown figure of conceptual art, he was close to Mike Kelley, Paul McCarthy
and John Baldessari, all of whom shared his taste for physical art.
Guy de Cointet's work testifies to his interest in language codes; many use
a form of symbolised writing, similar to hieroglyphs. His drawings, objects
and diagram works come to life as props for his theatre performances,
in which language is one of the characters. His drawings are graphic
explorations of the page. More densely populated areas are juxtaposed with
sparser zones in which language's potential for abstraction of all kinds
is revealed. A shift occurs between the signifying caption and its coded
representation of simple geometric strokes, vertical and horizontal lines
that become architectural, labyrinthine angles.
PRESS PACK - WANDER, LABYRINTHINE VARIATIONS
3.
LIST OF EXHIBITED ARTISTS
A Vito Acconci
(New York, United States,
1940 – lives in New York)
Bas Jan Ader
(Winschoten, Netherlands,
1942 – lost at sea between
Cape Cod and Ireland, 1975)
Jacques Fabien Gautier
d’Agoty
(Marseille, 1716 – Paris,
1785)
(Petilla de Aragón, Spain,
1852 – Madrid, Spain, 1934)
Francis Alÿs
(Antwerp, Belgium, 1959 –
lives in Mexico City, Mexico)
Carl Andre
(Quincy, United States, 1935
– lives in New York, United
States)
Art & Language:
Michael Baldwin
(Chipping Norton,
England, 1945),
Mel Ramsden
(Ilkeston, England, 1944 –
live in Middleton Cheney,
England)
Paul Citroen
(Berlin, Germany, 1896 Wassenaar, Netherlands,
1983)
Marcel Duchamp
(Blainville-Crevon, 1887 Neuilly-sur-Seine, 1968)
Gianni Colombo
(Milan, Italy, 1937 – Melzo,
Italy, 1993)
Constant (Constant
Anton Nieuwenhuys,
known as)
(Amsterdam, Netherlands,
1920 – Utrecht, Netherlands,
2005)
F Harun Farocki
Coop Himmelb(l)au:
Wolf D. Prix
(Vienna, Austria, 1942),
Helmut Swiczinsky
(Poznan,
´ Poland, 1944 – live
in Vienna, Austria and Los
Angeles, United States)
(London, England, 1922 –
lives in London, England)
Gino de Dominicis
(Ancona, Italy, 1947 – Rome,
Italy, 1998)
E Viking Eggeling
I
(Lund, Sweden, 1880 – Berlin,
Germany, 1925)
David-Georges Emmerich
(Debrecen, Hungary, 1925 –
Paris, 1996)
ˇ Neutitschein,
(Nový Jicín,
Germany, 1944 – lives in
Berlin, Germany)
León Ferrari
(Buenos Aires, Argentina,
1920 – lives in Bueos Aires)
Michel François
(Saint-Trond, Belgium, 1956 –
lives in Brussels, Belgium)
& François Curlet
(Paris, 1967 – lives in Paris
and Brussels, Belgium)
Lee Bontecou
(Providence, United States,
1931 – lives in Orbisonia,
United States)
Agnes Denes
(Budapest, Hungary, 1931
– lives in New York, United
States)
10
Yona Friedman
(Budapest, Hungary, 1923 lives in Paris)
Thomas Hirschhorn
(Berne, Switzerland, 1957 –
lives in Aubervilliers)
& Marcus Steinweg
(Koblenz, Germany, 1971 –
lives in Berlin, Germany)
Isidore Isou (Jean-Isidore
Isou Goldstein, known as)
(Botosani, Romania, 1925 –
Paris, 2007)
(Detroit, United States, 1954
- lives in Los Angeles, United
States)
Toba Khedoori
(Sydney, Australia, 1964 –
lives in Los Angeles, United
States)
Abbas Kiarostami
(Teheran, Iran, 1940 –
lives in Teheran)
Frederick Kiesler
(Czernowitz, AustroHungarian Empire, 1890
– New York, United States,
1965)
Bela Kolárová
(Terezín, Czechoslovakia,
1923 – Prague, Czech
Republic, 2010)
Rem Koolhaas
(Rotterdam, Netherlands,
1944 – lives in Rotterdam),
G Gego (Gertrud
Goldschmidt, known as)
(Hamburg, Germany, 1912 –
Caracas, Venezuela, 1994)
Mona Hatoum
(Beirut, Lebanon, 1952 –
lives in London, England)
K Mike Kelley
D Guy Debord
(Paris, 1931 – Champot, 1994)
Joseph Grigely
(East Longmeadow, United
States, 1956 – lives in
Chicago, United States)
H Richard Hamilton
Guy de Cointet
(Paris, 1934 – Los Angeles,
United States, 1983)
Julien Discrit
(Epernay, 1978 –
lives in Paris)
Henri-Georges Clouzot
(Niort, 1907 – Paris, 1977)
Didier Beaufort
(Liege, Belgium, 1955 –
lives in Brussels, Belgium)
Christophe Berdaguer
(Marseille, 1968)
& Marie Péjus
(Marseille, 1969 – live
in Paris and Marseille)
Vija Celmins
(Riga, Latvia, 1938 - lives
in New York, United States)
Maya Deren
(Kiev, Russia, 1917 – New
York, United States, 1961)
& Alexander Hammid
(Linz, Austro-Hungarian
Empire, 1907 – New York,
United States, 2004)
B Saul Bass
(New York, United States,
1920 – Los Angeles,
United States, 1996)
C Santiago Ramón y Cajal
Ian Breakwell
(Long Eaton, England, 1943 –
London, England, 2005)
PRESS PACK - WANDER, LABYRINTHINE VARIATIONS
Madelon Vriesendorp
(Bilthoven, Netherlands, 1945
– lives in London, England),
Zoe Zenghelis
(Athens, Greece, 1937 – lives
in London, England),
Elia Zenghelis
(Athens, Greece, 1937 – lives
in Brussels, Belgium)
Matt Mullican
(Santa Monica, United
States, 1951 - lives in Berlin,
Germany)
N Rosalind Nashashibi
(Croydon, England, 1973 –
lives in London, England)
P Gianni Pettena
Svetlana
(Voronej, USSR, 1950)
& Igor Kopystiansky
(Lviv, USSR, 1954 – live
in New York, United States)
(Bolzano, Italy, 1940 – lives
in Fiesole, Italy)
Piranèse (Giovanni Battista
Piranese, known as)
(Mogliano Veneto, Republic
of Venice, 1720 – Rome, Italy,
1778)
Public Space With a Roof:
Tamuna Chabashvili
(Tbilisi, Georgia, 1978),
Adi Hollander
(Brussels, Belgium, 1976),
Vesna Madzoski
(Zajecar,
Serbia, 1976 – live in
ˇ
Amsterdam, Netherlands)
Kisho Kurokawa
(Nagoya, Japan, 1934 – Tokyo,
Japan, 2007)
L Andreas Laurentius
(Arles, 1558 – Paris, 1609)
Julio Le Parc
(Mendoza, Argentina, 1928 –
lives in Cachan)
Augustin Lesage
(Saint-Pierre-lez-Auchel,
1876 - Burbure, 1954)
Barry Le Va
(Long Beach, United States,
1941 – lives in New York,
United States)
Mark Lombardi
(Syracuse, United States,
1951 – New York, United
States, 2000)
R Jean Renaudie
(La Meyze, 1925 –
Ivry-sur-Seine, 1981)
S Nicolas Schöffer
(Kalocsa, Hungary, 1912 –
Paris, 1992)
Robert Smithson
(Passaic, United States,
1938 – Amarillo, United
States, 1973)
Frank Stella
(Malden, United States, 1936
– lives in New York, United
States)
Richard Long
(Bristol, England, 1945 –
lives in Bristol)
M Kasimir Malevitch
(Kiev, Russia, 1879 –
Leningrad, USSR, 1935)
Corey McCorkle
(La Crosse, United States,
1969 - lives in New York,
United States)
Alexandre Rodtchenko
(Saint Petersburg, Russia,
1891 – Moscow, USSR, 1956)
U Günther Uecker
(Wendorf, Germany, 1930 –
lives in Düsseldorf, Germany)
Henri Michaux
(Namur, Belgium, 1899 –
Paris, 1984)
V Isidoro Valcárcel Medina
Vera Molnár
(Budapest, Hungary, 1924 –
lives in Paris)
Aldo Van Eyck
(Driebergen, Netherlands,
1918 – Loenen aan de Vecht,
Netherlands, 1999)
Robert Morris
(Kansas City, United States,
1931 – lives in New York,
United States)
Z
Raphaël Zarka
(Montpellier, 1977 – lives in
Paris)
(Murcia, Spain, 1937 –
lives in Madrid, Spain)
Nicolas Moulin
(Paris, 1970 – lives in Berlin,
Germany)
11
PRESS PACK - WANDER, LABYRINTHINE VARIATIONS
4.
Lineages,
Labyrinthine Detours Works, historical and
archaeological artefacts
Maps, anatomical plates, old etchings, games
and archaeological artefacts are interspersed throughout
the exhibition. They offer a view of, or indeed an entrance
into, curious worlds, and suggest the emergence
and sources of this labyrinthine, speculative train of
thought, as they sketch possible lineages or more formal
relationships.
Thus Piranesi's Carceri are placed alongside works
by Gego and Colombo. Gautier d'Agoty's anatomical plates,
a phrenological skull, and the first engravings of neuron
connections by Santiago Ramon y Cajal introduce
the section on mind spaces and knowledge. Mandalas
and games of snakes and ladders shed light on questions
of moral initiation or the quest for self-knowledge.
Treasures from Metz' libraries and multimedia centres,
the Louvre, the Musée de Rambouillet, the Musée
Testut Latarjet and the Musée Guimet give insight into
contemporary aesthetic and intellectual trends,
and elucidate ways of structuring thought and knowledge
that are still relevant today.
Anonyme
Mandala de
Kâlachakra
Tibet,
Fin XVIe siècle
Détrempe sur toile
103 x 94 x 4 cm
Musée Guimet, Paris
© RMN (musée Guimet,
Paris) / P. Pleynet
Partie supérieure
d'une niche,
Ier siècle - IIe siècle
après J.-C.
Suweida Hauran (Syrie du Sud)
Basalte
58 x 89 x 32 cm
Paris, Musée du Louvre,
Département des Antiquités
orientales
Don du H.C. R.F. en Syrie, 1927
© Musée du Louvre / Pierre et
Maurice Chuzeville
12
PRESS PACK - WANDER, LABYRINTHINE VARIATIONS
5.
COMMISSIONED WORKS
Wander has occasioned commissions to artists
and requests for re-enactments of important works,
such as those by Julio Le Parc, Gianni Colombo, and Gianni
Pettena. Some of these commissions are described below.
Matt Mullican
Two into One becomes
Three, 2011
70 éléments
Pastel gras sur toile
1464 x 1098 cm
Public Space With a Roof
Commande du Centre
Pompidou-Metz, 2011
Public Space With a Roof is an artists' collective, founded in 2003
in Amsterdam by artists Tamuna Chabashvili and Adi Hollander,
and the theorist Vesna Madzoski. Wander has invited the collective
to slip between the seams of the exhibition, like a spider spinning its web.
The Inverted City offers a mise en abyme of subject and exhibition.
As we go from room to room, it reveals the labyrinths and stories that filled
the thoughts of the exhibited artists, as well as previously unsuspected
connections between some of the works.
We follow the thoughts of an imaginary character who haunts the exhibition,
speculating on the labyrinth theme, producing notes, illustrations
and documentation along the way. PSWR considers both the conceptual
dimension of the labyrinth, and how it is transposed into the museum
context of this exhibition. On the first floor, a map of this Upside-Down City
could be the exhibition's reflection in a distorting mirror. The disturbing
feeling experienced by the visitor is now revealed through this map.
Courtesy Matt Mullican
Public Space With
a Roof
Model #3 The Inverted City:
Looking through
the cracks
of a labyrinth, 2011
Matt Mullican
American artist Matt Mullican (b. 1951) is a unique figure on today's
contemporary art scene. His work has been shown a number of times
in France, most recently at the Lyon Institut d'art contemporain. He was also
the subject of a wide-ranging retrospective at Munich's Haus der Kunst
(10 June – 11 September 2011).
Working in the fields of performance art, installation, drawing
and sculpture, as well as using hypnosis in his work, Matt Mullican
has, since the 1970s, evolved a personal cosmology comprising a formal,
symbolic vocabulary. He uses the sign- and colour-based vocabulary
he invents to organise society within reinvented worlds. Primary colours
associated with symbols refer to five fundamental concepts: green for nature
and elements, red for spiritual values, yellow for conscious manifestations
of art and science, blue for the mysteries of the unconscious mind,
and black for language. Assembled in various combinations in a range
of media, his pictograms classify reality. Using his own system
of classification, Mullican devises charts: universal cities and maps
that simulate natural phenomena or the mysteries of the human being.
Centre Pompidou-Metz has commissioned Mullican to produce a work
in keeping with the dimensions of the spectacular 20 metre-high wall
of the Grande Nef. A monumental exploration of mental space and the brain,
it will be one of the artist's largest ever commissions for a museum.
Installation
Matériaux divers
Dimensions variables
Commande du Centre
Pompidou-Metz
Courtesy Public Space With
A Roof
© Public Space With a Roof,
Amsterdam, 2011
13
PRESS PACK - WANDER, LABYRINTHINE VARIATIONS
Michel François
& François Curlet
Map of Athènes
(As it was Broken),
2003
Encre noire sur impression
offset
© Michel François
© François Curlet
Michel François
& François Curlet
Map of Athènes
(As it was broken),
2003
Adhésif noir sur vitre
© Michel François
© François Curlet
Michel François et François Curlet
Michel François and François Curlet's contribution to Wander takes position
on the glass windows above the museum entrance, which are inscribed
with curious black lines. They trace the outline of a network, part way
between a mechanical circuit and a spider's web. The seemingly random
tracings suggest a cracked window that has been hastily repaired with
black adhesive tape.
Broken glass has been central to Michel François’ work since the late 1980s,
either working visually with the imploded, diffuse craquelure effect
of shattered glass or, from a more urban and social stance, linking the idea
of rebellion to the star-shaped impact of a projectile. The aim in both cases
is to alter the transparency of the modern city, and the notions of exposure
and surveillance that surround it.
Map of Metz (As it was broken) in fact portrays a simplified map
of the city. The glass windows become larger-than-life telescopes, trained
on the city. Looking outwards, the building becomes a giant observatory,
and this stylised representation of the surrounding territory is superimposed
on the city itself.
14
PRESS PACK - WANDER, LABYRINTHINE VARIATIONS
6.
EXHIBITION DESIGN
Created by La Ville Rayée, the scenography for Wander
builds on an existing design that was originally devised
by Jasmin Oezcebi for the Masterpieces ? exhibition.
It describes a space in which traces of a previous
exhibition remain, while hinting at their future
disappearance. This de-densification of the existing
structure significantly increases the number of possible
configurations, and creates the necessary conditions
for wandering and drifting.
La Ville Rayée, an architects' collective, was invited
to put forward an original proposal, based on the existing
structure, that would be both eco-friendly
and cost-effective.
La Ville Rayée was set up in 2006 by David Apheceix,
Benjamin Lafore and Sébastien Martinez Barat.
The collective refurbished the Galerie Balice-Hertling
in Paris, produced a limited edition of tables for Gallery
Serge Bensimon and built a summer restaurant for the 2010
Imaginez Maintenant event in Metz. They are currently
converting a former paper-mill into an arts centre
(Le Moulin) for Galleria Continua in Boissy-le-Châtel,
and are working with JC Decaux on experimental urban
furniture for the La Défense district on the outskirts
of Paris.
lavillerayee.com
15
PRESS PACK - WANDER, LABYRINTHINE VARIATIONS
7.
THE LENDERS
AUSTRIA
VIENNA
Fondation Kiesler
Dieter Bogner, President
Monika Pessler, Director
Generali Foundation
Dietrich Karner, President
Sabine Folie, Director
Doris Leutgeb, Head of collections
BELGIUM
KNOKKE
André Simoens Gallery
André Simoens
FRANCE
LYON
Musée Testut Latarjet d'anatomie
et d'histoire naturelle médicale
de Lyon
Jean-Christophe Neidhardt,
Curator of Collections, Société
Nationale de Médecine et des
Sciences Médicales de Lyon
METZ
Bibliothèques-Médiathèques
de Metz
André-Pierre Syren, Director
Pierre-Edouard Wagner, Chief
Curator, Heritage Department
ORLÉANS
Frac Centre
François Bonneau, President
Marie-Ange Brayer, Director
PARIS
Centre national des Arts Plastiques,
Ministère de la Culture
et de la Communication
Anne-Marie Charbonneaux,
Chairwoman of the Board
Richard Lagrange, Director
Aude Bodet, Inspector for
Artistic Creation, Director, FNAC
Collections
Sébastien Faucon, Inspector for
Artistic Creation, Head of Plastic
Arts Collections
Centre Pompidou
Alain Seban, President
Alfred Pacquement, Director,
Musée National d’Art Moderne
Galerie Air de Paris
Florence Bonnefous and Edouard
Merino
Galerie Chez Valentin
Frédérique and Philippe Valentin
Galerie de Multiples
Giles Drouault
Galerie Martine Aboucaya
Martine Aboucaya
Musée du Louvre
Henri Loyrette, President
and Director
Béatrice André-Salvini, CuratorGeneral, Director of the Asian
Antiquities Department
Elizabeth Fontan, Chief Curator,
Asian Antiquities Department
Musée Guimet
Jacques Giès, President
Caroline Arhuero, Director of
Exhibitions and Museography
Nathalie Bazin, Curator, Nepal
and Tibet Department
Franz W. Kaiser, Head
of Exhibitions
Frans Peterse, Curator
LEIDEN
University Libraries
K.F.K. de Belder, Director
Maartje Van den Heuvel, Curator
Matthijs Holwerda, Head
of Collections
OTTERLO
Kröller-Müller Museum
Anthonie L. Stal, Chairman
of the Board
Evert van Straaten, Director
Liz Kreijn, Associate Director
of Collections
RAMBOUILLET
Ville de Rambouillet, Service du
Patrimoine-Musée du jeu de l'oie
Gérard Larcher, Senate President,
Senator of Yvelines, Mayor of
Rambouillet
Sophie de Juvigny, Chief Curator
PORTUGAL
REIMS
PORTO
Frac Champagne-Ardenne
Jean-Michel Jacquet, President
Florence Derieux, Director
Fundação de Serralves Museu de Arte Contemporânea
João Fernandes, Director
SÉLESTAT
SPAIN
Frac Alsace
Claude Sturni, President of Agence
culturelle d'Alsace
Olivier Grasser, Director
BARCELONA
MACBA, Museu d'Art Contemporani
de Barcelona Consortium
Bartomeu Marí, Director
Antònia Maria Perelló, Curator
TOULOUSE
Frac Midi-Pyrénnées
Alain Mousseigne, Director
of Les Abattoirs
Pascal Pique, Director of Frac
Midi-Pyrénnées
MADRID
Succession Cajal, Institut Cajal
(CSIC)
Ignacio Torres Alemán, Director
Juan A. De Carlos, Cajal Estate
GERMANY
UNITED KINGDOM
BERLIN
EDINBURGH
Berlinische Galerie Landesmuseum für Moderne Kunst,
Fotografie und Architektur
Thomas Köhler, Director
Andreas Piel, Chief Curator
Heinz Stahlhut, Curator, Head of
the Modern and Contemporary Art
Collection
Galerie Doggerfisher
Susanna Beaumont and Matt
Carter
LONDON
Stephen Friedman Gallery
David Hubbard
Tate
Nicholas Serota, Director of Tate
Caroline Collier, Director of Tate
National
Stéphanie Busson, Chief Curator,
Tate Modern
Sheena Wagstaff, Chief Curator,
Tate Modern
Lucy Askew, Chief Curator, Artist
Rooms
Cranford Collection
Bethany Childs
DUISBURG
Wilhelm Lehmbruck Museum
Raimund Stecker, Director
Leinz Gottlieb, Assistant Director,
Curator of the Sculptures Collection
Marion Bornscheuer, Chief Curator
ITALY
MILAN
Archivio Gianni Colombo
Luciano Pizzagalli, President
Marco Scotini, Curator
UNITED STATES
NETHERLANDS
LOS ANGELES
THE HAGUE
The Centre Pompidou-Foundation
Robert M. Rubin, President
Scott Stover, Director
Gemeentemuseum Den Haag
Benno Tempel, Director
Titus Eliens, Head of Collections
16
MIAMI
The Ella Fontanals - Cisneros
Collection
Ella Fontanals-Cisneros, President
Patricia Garcia-Velez, Director
NEW YORK
Metro Pictures Gallery
Janelle Reiring and Helene Winer
The Museum of Modern Art
Glen D. Lowry, Director
Ramona Bronkar Bannayan, Chief
Curator, Collection Management
and Exhibition Registration
Christophe Chérix, Chief Curator,
Department of Prints and
Illustrated Books – The Abby
Aldrich Rockefeller
Jodi Hauptman, Curator,
Department of Drawings
Ann Temkin, Chief Curator,
Department of Painting and
Sculpture
Leah Dickerman, Curator,
Department of Painting and
Sculpture
Ann Umland, Curator, Department
of Painting and Sculpture
Paola Antonelli, Curator,
Department of Architecture and
Design
Paul Galloway, Head of
Architecture and Design Study
Center
Whitney Museum of American Art
Adam Weinberg, Director
Donna de Salvo, Chief Curator
VENEZUELA
CARACAS
Fondation Gego
Barbara Gunz, Director
Priscilla Abecassis, Administrator
Private collections
Matthias Arndt, Corrado Beldi –
Oleggio, Italy, Marie de Brugerolle
– Lyon, Bruno Van Lierde –
Brussels, Nicholas Logsdail,
Philippe Méaille, Gian Enzo
Sperone.
Artists' collections
Vito Acconci, Didier Beaufort,
Christophe Berdaguer and Marie
Péjus, Agnes Denes, Michel
François and François Curlet,
Joseph Grigely, Thomas Hirschhorn,
Julio Le Parc, Corey McCorkle,
Véra Molnar, Matt Mullican, Gianni
Pettena, Public Space With a Roof,
Isidoro Valcárcel Medina.
C’est en 1975, de la fenêtre de son appartement situé au troisième étage
d’un immeuble donnant sur le marché de Smithfield, dans le centreest londonien, que Ian Breakwell remarque les dérives quotidiennes
d’un homme au milieu du tumulte des transactions mercantiles. Vêtu
d’un pardessus et de bottes en toutes circonstances, l’homme à la tête
baissée et aux cheveux grisonnants arpente les rues environnantes sans
objectif apparent et selon le même circuit tortueux, s’arrêtant parfois
pendant une demi-heure, comme pétrifié. Dès lors, « l’homme marchant »
devient sans le savoir le sujet d’un journal photographique et textuel
tenu par Breakwell. En 1977, il manquera au rendez-vous et réapparaîtra
de nouveau en 1978, cette fois suivant une démarche ralentie, jusqu’à
sa disparition définitive en 1979.
Prenant la forme d’une série de collages, The Walking Man Diary
(1975-1978) retrace les déambulations de ce quidam capturées par
l’appareil photographique et la plume de l’artiste. Discipline, répétition
et automatisme de ces collages qui se proposent comme miroirs
des pérégrinations du flâneur anonyme. Ainsi, chaque photographietémoin du passage de l’homme est accompagnée d’une date, de l’heure
et d’une légende qui se veut sérielle : « Past the window filled with skinned
rabbit; Past the window filled with cow’s heads; Past the window filled with
piles of pheasants; Past the window filled with diamonds… »
The Walking Man Diary constitue un élément du journal tenu par Breakwell
pendant quarante ans. Celui-ci porta sur les rencontres aléatoires, sur
la célébration de ce que l’artiste appelait « les petites épiphanies de la vie »
ou, comme l’a décrit Felicity Sparrow, sa femme et commissaire d’exposition,
Anna Colin
« des choses qui n’ont pas de valeur dans les quotidiens
et les journaux télévisés ». Si rendre visible ce qui est négligé,
ignoré ou inaperçu peut se lire comme le signe d’une
œuvre socialement engagée, la dimension la plus politique
de son travail se trouve dans son étude de l’isolement
et de la marginalisation. Commencé avec The Walking Man
Diary, qui dédia une œuvre à un inconnu visiblement en
marge de la société, l’intérêt de l’artiste pour la déviance
et sa surveillance se poursuivit à la fin des années 1970
à l’occasion d’une résidence dans le département de
la Santé du gouvernement britannique. Facilitée par l’Artist’s
Placement Group, une initiative dont l’objectif était de
faire intervenir les artistes au niveau du gouvernement
et des industries, la résidence de Breakwell l’amena à
proposer une réforme concernant le traitement des troubles
mentaux, prônant notamment sa désinstitutionalisation
et l’assouplissement des dispositifs de sécurité dans
les établissements psychiatriques. Entre anthropologue
passif et réformateur, Ian Breakwell serait peut-être plus
justement défini comme observateur et critique de la
normalité telle qu’elle est définie et imposée par la société.
146 • 147
Photographies noir et blanc
sur papier, texte typographié
et texte écrit à la main sur papier
123,3 x 615,9 x 1,9 cm
Tate Modern, Londres
T07701
The Walking Man Diary,
1975-1978
Ci-dessous :
metropolis
Ian Breakwell
Chapitre iV
Long Eaton, Royaume-Uni, 1943 – Londres, Royaume-Uni, 2005
PRESS PACK - WANDER, LABYRINTHINE VARIATIONS
8.
THE CATALOGUE
Les Associés réunis
Catalogue cover
and inside pages
The catalogue for Wander is the fourth exhibition
catalogue to be published by the Centre Pompidou-Metz.
Screen-printed canvas cover
Its design is freely inspired by the mail-order
catalogues which Manufacture Française d'Armes
et Cycles published in the early 1900s, and which had
a longstanding influence on artists. Marcel Duchamp,
for example, wanted his catalogue raisonné to take
this form; likewise for Jacques Carelman's Catalogue
d'objets introuvables ("catalogue of unfindable objects").
There is no hierarchy of content, just a free
and non-exhaustive inventory of labyrinthine thought
and imaginings. Information about the works mingles
with thematic entries in a maze-like mapping
of the exhibition. Thus fairy tales, kaleidoscopes,
literature on drifting and exhibited works
criss-cross the catalogue's pages.
It also includes essays by Eric Duyckaerts,
Luc Gwiazdzinski, Marcella Lista, Céleste
Olalquiaga, Doina Petrescu, Pierre Rosenstiehl,
Olivier Schefer and Philippe Vasset, with prefaces
by Alain Seban and Laurent Le Bon.
Graphic design and layout is by Les Associés réunis.
The primary activity of the graphic design studio
Les Associés réunis is book design. The agency
was founded in 2005 by Gérard Lo Monaco. Following
their studies at the graphic arts school ESAG Penninghen,
Marie Sourd and more recently Katie Fechtmann joined
the studio. The agency produces the graphic design,
covers and typography for over twenty works per year
published by Hélium and other known publishers
including Denoël, 10/18 and Gallimard.
lesassociesreunis.com
Description
272 pages
Only in French
Publication
in September 2011
€39,00
17
PRESS PACK - WANDER, LABYRINTHINE VARIATIONS
9.
THE EXHIBITION GAME:
LABYRINT* IN A VALISE (*H)
An enigma within an enigma, Labyrint* in a Valise (*h)
is an exhibition-sized game that revives the tradition
of garden mazes, where clues were scattered or whispered
among the hedges. An initiatory quest where poems, works,
quotes and equations weave a thread of romance
and adventure through the exhibition.
A prize will reward visitors who resolve the enigmas,
riddles and the Mystery that await them inside the
exhibition labyrinth.
Keep track of the game, specially devised for the exhibition
and which runs for its duration, on the Centre PompidouMetz website (“Le jeu Erre” / “The Wander Game”)
and Facebook page.
THE LABYRINT* IN A VALISE (*H) CARD GAME
A pack of 49 cards, this "Labyrinth in a Valise" snakes
its way through the Centre Pompidou-Metz and out into
the town itself. Players discover a set of clues and enigmas
with which to imagine an itinerary, pulled along by
the power of attraction of an ideal being. The visitor’s task
is to find the way out of this maze of images, texts
and mathematical formulas. A game that is part puzzle,
part divination, and part…
Price: €10,00
Elaborated by the independent curator Jean de Loisy
at the invitation of the curators of Wander.
Jean de Loisy is President of the Palais de Tokyo. His previous positions
include Inspector for Creation at the Ministry of Culture, Curator
at the Fondation Cartier and Curator at the Centre Georges Pompidou.
He has also directed and co-directed a number of art venues in France.
Jean de Loisy has staged numerous solo shows and other memorable
exhibitions, including “La Beauté” in Avignon in 2000, and “Traces
du Sacré” at the Centre Pompidou in 2008. He curated “Monumenta 2011 /
Anish Kapoor” at the Grand Palais and the Israeli Pavilion by Sigalit Landau
at the 2011 Venice Biennale. His current projects include an exhibition
of works by Jacques Lizène at the Passage de Retz in Paris in October 2011,
and an exhibition on shamanism, “Les Maîtres du Désordre”, at the Musée
du Quai Branly in 2012.
With contributions from Estelle Delesalle, artist, and Laurent Derobert,
philosopher and mathematician.
In partnership with the Ecole Supérieure d’Art d’Avignon.
The game's title was inspired by Marcel Duchamp's la Boîte-en-valise
(Box in a Valise).
1
18
PRESS PACK - WANDER, LABYRINTHINE VARIATIONS
10.
CREDITS
WANDER IS PRODUCED BY THE CENTRE POMPIDOU-METZ
EXHIBITION WANDER
Curators
Hélène Guenin
Guillaume Désanges
Assisted by Élodie Stroecken
Associate Curator for the Labyrint*
in a Valise (*h) game
Jean de Loisy
Production Manager
Fanny Moinel
Scenographer
La Ville Rayée
David Apheceix, Benjamin Lafore
and Sébastien Martinez Barat
based on original graphic elements
designed by Jasmin Oezcebi
Research Assistants
Léa Bismuth
Laure Jaumouillé
Work Method
Mélanie Mermod
Hélène Meisel
Caroline Bléteau
Works Registrars
Eléonore Mialonier
Irene Pomar
Galleries Registrars
Alexandre Chevalier
Clitous Bramble
AV Production Manager
Géraldine Celli
AV and Lights
Jean-Philippe Currivant
Graphic Design for the Exhibition,
Invitation and Signage
Les Associés réunis
Gérard Lo Monaco,
Katie Fechtmann, Marie Sourd
and Léopold Roux
Pop-up: Bernard Duisit
Centre pOmpidou-metz
Internship Assistants
Thibault Casagrande, Sophie
Chiarla, Aline Elwert, Mathieu
Loctin, Pauline Mellinger,
Alice Pfister, Juliette Pollet,
David Rodriguez, Raphaël Saubole
and Coline Soubieux.
École supérieure d'art de Lorraine:
Bérenger Barois, François Bellabas,
Bernard Gissinger, Lucie Linder,
Anaïs Prioux and Pierre Von-Ow
Board of ADMINISTRAtors
President
Alain Seban, President
Honorary President
Jean-Marie Rausch
Vice-President
Jean-Luc Bohl, President of Metz
Métropole
Representing the Centre Pompidou
Alain Seban, President,
Agnès Saal, Chief Executive,
Jean-Marc Auvray, Director
of Legal and Financial Affairs,
Bernard Blistène, Director of
Cultural Development, Frank
Madlener, Director of Institut
de Recherche et Coordination
Acoustique/Musique (IRCAM),
Alfred Pacquement, Director of
Musée National d'Art Moderne,
Vincent Poussou, Director
of Educational and Public
Programmes.
LABYRINT* IN A VALISE (*H)
Game elaborated by Jean de Loisy
With participation from Estelle
Delesalle and Laurent Derobert
Coordination by Jean-Baptiste
de Beauvais
In partnership with the École
supérieure d'art d'Avignon, JeanMarc Ferrari, Director
CATALOGUE
Editors in chief
Hélène Guenin and
Guillaume Désanges
Representing Metz Métropole
Jean-Luc Bohl, President, Antoine
Fonte, Vice-President, Pierre
Gandar, Community Counsellor,
Patrick Grivel, Community
Counsellor, Henri Hasser,
Vice-President, Thierry Hory,
Vice-President, William Schuman,
Community Counsellor.
Editor
Elsa Belaieff
Image Researchers
Aurianne Cox and Marie Rocamora
Copy Editing and Proofreading
Les Pointilleuses
Aurélie Argellies, Céline Derouet
and Ana Sinde
Representing the Conseil Régional
de Lorraine
Jean-Pierre Masseret, President,
Nathalie Colin-Osterlé, Regional
Councillor, Josiane Madelaine,
Vice-President, Roger Tirlicien,
Chairman of the Commission
on Social and Inter-regional
Relations, Thibault Villemin,
Vice-President.
Graphic Design
Les Associés réunis
Gérard Lo Monaco,
Katie Fechtmann and Marie Sourd
Maquette: Katie Fechtmann
Manufacturing Coordinator
Dominique Oukkal
Museum Signage Coordinator
Les Pointilleuses
Aurélia Monnier
Representing the State
Christian Galliard de Lavernée,
Préfet for the Lorraine region,
Préfet for the Moselle department.
Lighting Design
Odile Soudant - Lumières Studio
Odile Soudant, Alix Abanda
and Mélanie Dessales
19
Representing the City of Metz
Dominique Gros, Mayor of Metz
Richard Lioger, First Deputy Mayor
Ex-Officio
Frédéric Lemoine, Chairman
of the Wendel Group Executive
Board,
Patrick Weiten, President
of the Conseil Général
de la Moselle
Representing Staff of the Centre
Pompidou-Metz
Philippe Hubert, Technical Director
Benjamin Milazzo, Visitor Relations
and Membership Officer
Management
Laurent Le Bon
Director
Claire Garnier
Personal Assistant
and Project Coordinator
General Secretariat
Emmanuel Martinez
Secretary General
Pascal Keller
Assistant Secretary General
Julie Béret
Administrative Coordinator
Hélène de Bisschop
Legal Advisor
Émilie Engler
Secretarial Assistant
PRESS PACK - WANDER, LABYRINTHINE VARIATIONS
Department of Administration
and Finance
Jean-Eudes Bour
Head of Department - Accountant
Jérémy Fleur
Accounts Assistant
Audrey Jeanront
Human Resources Management
Assistant
Ludivine Morat
Administrative Coordinator
Alexandra Morizet
Public Contracts Coordinator
Department of Building
Maintenance and Operations
Philippe Hubert
Technical Director
Christian Bertaux
Head of Building Maintenance
Sébastien Bertaux
Chief Electrician
Vivien Cassar
Technical Coordinator
Jean-Pierre Del Vecchio
Systems and Networks
Administrator
Christian Heschung
Head of Information Systems
Stéphane Leroy
Operations Manager
André Martinez
Head of Security
Jean-David Puttini
Painter
Department of Communications
and Development
Annabelle Türkis
Head of Department
Erika Ferrand-Cooper
Communications and Events Officer
Marie-Christine Haas
Multimedia Communications
Officer
Louise Moreau
Communications and Press
Relations Officer
Marine Van Schoonbeek
Communications and Public
Relations Officer
Amélie Watiez
Communications and Events Officer
Aurélien Zann
Multimedia Communications
Officer
Pauline Fournier
Public Relations Assistant
(cooperative education programme)
Department of Production
Department of Visitor Relations
Anne-Sophie Royer
Head of Department
Charline Becker
Project Manager
Clitous Bramble
Galleries Registrar
Géraldine Celli
Performing Arts Production Officer
Alexandre Chevalier
Galleries Registrar
Jean-Philippe Currivant
Technical Registrar
Olivia Davidson
Project Manager
Jennifer Gies
Project Manager
Thibault Leblanc
Performing Arts Registrar
Eléonore Mialonier
Works Registrar
Fanny Moinel
Project Manager
Irene Pomar
Works Registrar
Aurélie Dablanc
Head of Department
Fedoua Bayoudh
Visitor Relations and Tourism
Officer
Djamila Clary
Assistant to the Department
Jules Coly
Visitor Relations, Information
and Accessibility Officer
Anne-Marine Guiberteau
Youth Programming and Youth
Activities Officer
Benjamin Milazzo
Visitor Relations and Membership
Officer
Anne Oster
Educational Establishments
Relations Officer
Internship / Assistants
Ophélie Binet, Evelyne Briand,
Sonia Cabon, Caroline Darcq,
Amélie Evrard, Nastasia Gallian,
Nadia Kabbach, Eliane de
Larminat, Sarah Ligner,
Pauline Mellinger, Aurèlia Ongena,
Juliette Pollet, Marianne Pouille,
Mathieu Taraschini
Department of Programming
Hélène Guenin
Head of Department
Ada Ackerman
Research and Exhibitions Officer
Camille Aguignier
Research and Exhibitions Officer
Elsa Belaieff
Editor
Léa Bismuth
Editorial Assistant
Claire Bonnevie
Editor
Matthieu Goeury
Studio and Wendel Auditorium
Programming Officer
Laure Jaumouillé
Research and Exhibitions Officer
Anaïs Lellouche
Programming Assistant
and Assistant to the Director
Alexandra Müller
Research and Exhibitions Officer
Dominique Oukkal
Manufacturing Coordinator
Élodie Stroecken
Coordinator and Assistant
to the Department
Ada Ackerman
Research and Exhibitions Officer
20
PRESS PACK - WANDER, LABYRINTHINE VARIATIONS
11.
EVENTS AND PERFORMANCES
The Centre Pompidou-Metz stages a regular programme
of multidisciplinary events in its different spaces - Wendel
Auditorium, Studio and Forum – as well as at outside
venues. De-partitioning spaces and content in this way
creates opportunities for dialogue between the exhibitions
and live performances.
LIVE PERFORMANCE
Presented in seasons, these events further develop
the themes examined in the exhibitions through other
modes of expression, including live performance, music,
lectures and films.
Dance
30.09.2011 (in partnership with Nuit Blanche 4)
As a place to experiment with new ideas and experiences,
Centre Pompidou-Metz takes an original and engaging
approach to modern and contemporary art by bringing
different disciplines together and encouraging real
exchange between artists and audiences.
01.10.2011
Not about everything
Daniel Linehan
10.30pm - Studio
35 minutes
6pm - Studio
FILM
The start to the 2011-2012 season is developed around
Wander with weekend events that echo the exhibition's
themes.
CUBE
Vincenzo Natali
01.10.2011
SEPTEMBER – OCTOBER
>temps fort 1 (Highlights 1)
4pm – Auditorium Wendel
90 minutes
Echoing the Captive section of “Wander,
Labyrinthine Variations”
Stalker
aNdrei tarkovski
02.10.2011
4pm – Auditorium Wendel
163 minutes
Not about everything, Daniel Linehan©Jason Somma
21
PRESS PACK - WANDER, LABYRINTHINE VARIATIONS
OCTOBER
>TEMPS FORT 2 (Highlights 2)
Visit and Interpretation of Wander
LIVE PERFORMANCE
La visite de Fanny (Visit with Fanny)
Fanny De Chaillé
Instantané (Snapshot), Fanny de Chaillé
Guided exhibition tour commented and interpreted by Fanny
15.10.2011
Instantanés (Snapshots) invites artists for one week, during
which the public can discover different aspects of their work.
After Tiago Guedes in January 2011 and Hubert Colas in
March 2011, Fanny de Chaillé will take up residency at the
Centre Pompidou-Metz and other partner venues in October
2011.
Fanny de Chaillé works in a number of fields, including dance,
theatre, readings and performance art, but always with
the same objective: to explore her raw material, language.
After working with Daniel Larrieu, Rachid Ouramdane,
Emmanuelle Huynh and Alain Buffard, in November 2009
she became an associate artist of the Théâtre de la Cité
Internationale in Paris.
11am – Meeting point in front of the Here
and There space (Forum) at 10.50 am
30 minutes
La Course de Lenteur
Fanny de ChaillÉ
Participative project for public space
16.10.2011
11h30 - Parvis des Droits-de-L’Homme
NOVEMBER
>TEMPS FORT 3 (Highlights 3)
Echoing the The mental labyrinth section of “Wander,
Labyrinthine Variations”
"From Trance
to Transcendence"
18.11.2011 > 20.11.2011
Orbes
Emmanuel Holterbach, Sophie Durand
Gonzo Conférence, Fanny de Chaillé©Marc Domage
Le Voyage d’Hiver
Fanny de ChaillÉ
based on Georges Perec
Musique
18.11.2011
8pm - 49 Nord 6 Est - Frac Lorraine
Performance reading
12.10.2011
Vertiges du déplacement
Olivier Schefer
7pm - Ecole Supérieure d'Art de Lorraine (Metz)
20 minutes
ConfErence
Gonzo confÉrence + concert
Fanny de ChaillÉ,
for and with Christine Bombal
followed by
« Two into one becomeS three »
Matt Mullican
Performance lecture
14.10.2011
TALK / PERFORMANCE
19.11.2011
8.30pm - Les Trinitaires
40 minutes + concert
5pm – Auditorium Wendel and Grande Nef
Je suis un metteur en scÈne japonaiS
Fanny de ChaillÉ
Performing art
15.10.2011
8.30pm - Studio
60 minutes
22
PRESS PACK - WANDER, LABYRINTHINE VARIATIONS
Performance de ChloÉ Maillet
& Louise HervÉ
ChloÉ Maillet & Louise HervÉ
MÉtrage Variable
Halory Goerger
PERFORMANCE
01.12.2011
Performances
20.11.2011
8pm - Espace Bernard-Marie Koltès –
Théâtre Universitaire du Saulcy
55 minutes
4pm – La Synagogue de Delme contemporary
arts centre – Conseil général de Moselle
Indigence = ÉlÉgance
Antoine Defoort
Partners: La Synagogue de Delme contemporary arts centre;
49 Nord 6 Est – Frac Lorraine
Performance
01.12.2011
DECEMBER
>TEMPS FORT 4 (Highlights 4)
9pm - Espace Bernard-Marie Koltès –
Théâtre Universitaire du Saulcy
55 minutes
Echoing the Space / Time section of “Wander, Labyrinthine
Variations”
Live performance
&&&&& & &&&
Antoine Defoort and Halory Goerger
Instantané (Snapshot) Antoine Defoort / Halory Goerger /
Julien Fournet
Performance / Installation
03.12.2011 > 04.12.2011
Warning, sci-fi! Echoing the Space/Time section of Wander,
Centre Pompidou-Metz has invited three inspired inventors
to make a stopover in Metz. Join Antoine Defoort, Halory
Goerger and Julien Fournet for an introduction to the musichall of 2052, DIY sci-fi, masterpieces of speculative cinema,
and football…but not as we know it!
With a sometimes light and often offbeat touch, the three
performers set us thinking about the world of today by making
us laugh about the world of tomorrow.
03.12 from 2.30pm to 5.30pm and 04.12 from 2pm to 5pm
admission at any time - Studio
60 minutes on average
Visit and Interpretation of Wander
La visite d’Antoine et Halory (Visit with
Antoine and Halory)
Antoine Defoort and Halory Goerger
Guided exhibition tour commented and interpreted BY
ANTOINE AND HALORY
04.12.2011
11am – Meeting point: in front of the Here
and There space (Forum) at 10.50am
30 minutes
ChevaL
Antoine Defoort AND Julien Fournet
Cheval, Antoine Defoort et Julien Fournet© Guillaume Schmitt
Performance
07.12.2011
8pm - Espace Bernard-Marie Koltès –
Théâtre Universitaire du Saulcy
60 minutes
23
PRESS PACK - WANDER, LABYRINTHINE VARIATIONS
12.
PARTNER VENUES
"From Trance to Transcendence"
18.11.2011 > 20.11.2011
A weekend of altered states of consciousness and trances: from meandering thoughts to meditation, from the search
for different levels of perception and understanding to the creatures that wander in other spheres of reality, this weekend
embarks on a journey of the mind to three different sites and three exhibitions. Performances, lectures and visits explore
the different ways of going beyond the rational world, duplication, multiple personalities and the wandering that produces
meanings and forms.
Partners: La Synagogue de Delme contemporary arts centre; 49 Nord 6 Est - Frac Lorraine
Artists / guests: Matt Mullican, Chloé Maillet & Louise Hervé, Olivier Schefer, Emmanuel Holterbach and Sophie Durand
EXHIBITIONS
Les 1 000 Rêves de Stellavista
Le moins du monde
15.10.2011 > 05.02.2012
07.10.2011 > 08.01.2012
This exhibition questions how architecture relates
to ghosts, the archaeology of customs and memory.
It also considers how a memory can remain alive despite
the passage of time and the sedimentation of past customs.
The exhibition title refers to JG Ballard's short story,
The Thousand Dreams of Stellavista, in which the author
describes a strange city in which psychotropic houses
retain the psychology of their successive inhabitants.
The houses continue to respond to their owners’ affects,
as though they were physical extensions of their moods.
An experience of inner sensations through retinal
and auditory waves and vibrations.
La Synagogue de Delme contemporary arts centre
Frac Lorraine
Meditation lies at the core of many religions and spiritual
belief systems, as do medical practices, perhaps because
an empty mind and altered states of consciousness
are inherently part of the way our mind and brain function.
Altering this through meditation could also transform
our way of being.
Le Moins du Monde* is a moment of meditation, a mental
eclipse in search of invisible realities.
Group show with Inassi Aballi, Samuel Beckett, Stanley Brouwn, Clino Trini
Castelli, Delphine Coindet, Dunne and Raby, Michel François, Peter Friedl,
Tamar Guimaraes, Susan Hiller, Sherrie Levine, Chloé Maillet and Louise
Hervé, Gianni Pettena, François Roche
In association with Fragment for the audio and music
selection. Full programme at www.fraclorraine.org
*Title borrowed from Roger Munier (b. 1923 in Nancy, d. 2010 and buried in Xertigny in the Vosges).
Curators: Christophe Berdaguer & Marie Péjus, artists, and Marie Cozette,
Director of La Synagogue de Delme contemporary arts centre
Artists: Marina Abramovic, Susanna Fritscher, Craigie Horsfield, Ann
Veronica Janssens, Tania Mouraud, Yazid Oulab, Peter Vermeersch, Ian
Wilson & Charles Curtis, Jean-Claude Eloy, Morton Feldman, Henry Flint,
Catherine Christer Hennix, Eliane Radigue et al.
Centre d’art contemporain – la synagogue de Delme
33 rue Poincaré
57590 Delme
+33 (0)3 87 01 35 61
[email protected]
cac.synagoguedelme.org
49 Nord 6 Est – Fonds régional d’art contemporain de Lorraine
1 bis, rue des Trinitaires
57000 Metz
+33 (0)3 87 74 20 02
[email protected]
fraclorraine.org
24
PRESS PACK - WANDER, LABYRINTHINE VARIATIONS
13.
VISITOR INFORMATION
Opening hours
Centre Pompidou-Metz is open every day
except Tuesday and 1st May.
Opening times are as follows
(subject to modification):
Monday..................... 11am - 6pm
Tuesday.................... closed
Wednesday............... 11am - 6pm
Thursday.................. 11am - 8pm
Friday....................... 11am - 8pm
Saturday................... 10am - 8pm
Sunday...................... 10am - 6pm
Last ticket sales 45 minutes before closing time.
ADMISSION
General admission: €7
A ticket gives admission to all the exhibitions
showing on the day of your visit.
Free admission (on presentation of an official
document) for:
— under 26s,
— teachers with a Pass Education,
— disabled visitors and a companion,
— job-seekers who are registered in France
(proof of status must be less than
6 months old),
— beneficiaries of income support (proof
of status must be less than 6 months old),
— beneficiaries of a basic State pension,
— registered tour guides,
— holders of an Icom, Icomos or Aica card,
— journalists with a press card,
— artists registered with the Maison
des Artistes.
The priority line is for:
— holders of a Centre Pompidou-Metz “Pass”
membership card,
— disabled visitors and a companion,
— persons with reservations or pre-paid
admission,
— holders of an Icom, Icomos or Aica card,
— journalists with a press card.
Audioguides : €3
Multimedia audioguides can be rented
at the ticket desk.
Languages: French, English, German.
Adapted for hearing-impaired visitors (AFIL).
For more information go to
centrepompidou-metz.fr
GROUPS
By train: high-speed TGV Metz Ville station
with direct trains from Paris (1hr 20min)
and Luxembourg City (40 min). “Lorraine TGV”
station (29 km from Metz, shuttle service)
with directs trains from Lille Europe (2hrs),
Rennes (4hrs), Bordeaux (5hrs) and Frankfurt
(2hrs 40min).
By plane: Metz-Nancy Lorraine Airport (33 km
/ 20 min), Luxembourg Airport (69 km / 45 min),
Sarrebruck Airport (79 km / 1h), Zweibrücken
Airport (110 km / 1h20).
Visit with a Centre Pompidou-Metz guide
Price: €170
Languages: French, English, German
The price includes admission, a 90-minute
guided tour and group booking fees.
Groups are strictly limited to 20 people.
Self-led group visit or with a guide from outside
the Centre Pompidou-Metz:
Price: €7 per person + €20 booking fee
for priority access
Groups are strictly limited to 20 people.
WHERE TO BUY TICKETS
Online at centrepompidou-metz.fr and through
the Fnac, Digitick, France Billet and TicketNet
services
On site from the ticket desks or the ticket machines
How to get to the Centre
Pompidou-Metz
On foot: a 2-minute walk from the high-speed TGV
Metz Ville station; 10 minutes from the historical
town centre.
By car: A4 (Paris / Strasbourg) and A31
(Luxembourg / Lyon) motorways, exit Metz Centre.
Underground 700-space parking garage on avenue
François Mitterrand. Open 24/7.
By coach: A4 (Paris / Strasbourg) and A31
(Luxembourg / Lyon) motorways, exit Metz
Centre. Group drop-off zone on avenue François
Mitterrand; reserved coach parking on avenue
Louis Débonnaire.
25
Centre Pompidou-Metz
1, parvis des Droits-de-l'Homme
CS 60490
F-57020 Metz Cedex 1
+33 (0)3 87 15 39 39
[email protected]
centrepompidou-metz.fr
Join Centre Pompidou-Metz on Facebook
and Twitter!
PRESS PACK - WANDER, LABYRINTHINE VARIATIONS
14.
PATRONS AND PARTNERS
The Centre Pompidou-Metz is the first offshoot of a French cultural institution, the
Centre Pompidou, developed in collaboration with a regional authority, the Communauté
d’Agglomération de Metz Métropole (the combined district council for the Greater Metz area).
Greater Metz was the contracting authority for the project and provided the majority of funding,
in association with the City of Metz (agent) and the Centre Pompidou. Construction of the
Centre Pompidou-Metz also received funding from the Conseil Général de la Moselle, the
Conseil Régional de Lorraine, the French State and the European Union (European Regional
Development Fund – ERDF).
The Centre Pompidou-Metz is an “Établissement Public de Coopération Culturelle” (public
establishment for cultural cooperation) whose founding members are the French State, the
Centre Pompidou, the Lorraine Region, Communauté d’Agglomération de Metz Métropole and
the City of Metz.
The Centre Pompidou-Metz would like to thank all its partners for their essential contribution
to the staging of its exhibitions.
In collaboration with Vranken-Pommery Monopole
Work by Isidoro Valcárcel Medina is presented thanks to funding from the AC/E Acción cultural española (Seacex)
Work by Public Space With a Roof is produced thanks to funding from Fondation
Mondriaan and Fonds BKVB / Netherlands Foundation for visual arts, design and architecture
Centre Pompidou-Metz would also like to thank SAMSUNG Electronics France
26
PRESS PACK - WANDER, LABYRINTHINE VARIATIONS
15.
PRESS VISUALS
(UPON REQUEST)
Download visuals for the exhibition
at centrepompidou-metz.fr/phototheque
with the following user name: presse
and password: Pomp1d57.
Any and all use of these visuals requires prior authorisation
from successors, or agencies managing artists’ royalties,
notably ADAGP, which must give prior permission
to reproduce these visuals which are subject to the terms
and conditions set out below. All royalties must be paid.
Press publications which have an agreement with ADAGP
should refer to the terms of this agreement.
All other press publications
Royalties are waived for the first two reproductions illustrating
an article on a current event up to a maximum of one quarterpage; in excess of this number or format, reproduction rights
must be paid; any reproduction on a front cover or front page
must have the prior permission of the ADAGP Press Division.
Online publications
Royalties are waived for the first two reproductions illustrating
an article on a current event; in excess of this number,
reproduction rights must be paid.
Contacts à l'ADAGP
Patricia Louot & Géraldine de Spéville
Société des Auteurs dans les Arts Graphiques et Plastiques
11, rue Berryer - 75008 Paris, France
Tél. : +33 (0)1 43 59 09 79 - Fax. : +33 (0)1 45 63 44 89
adagp.fr
27
Press contacts
EPCC Centre Pompidou-Metz
Louise Moreau
+33 (0)3 87 15 39 63
[email protected]
Claudine Colin Communication
Dorélia Baird-Smith
+33 (0)1 42 72 60 01
[email protected]