Ghirlandaio: A century-long artistic saga - The Ghirlandaio Family. Italian Renaissance Painters in Florence and Scandicci

The Ghirlandaio Family
Renaissance Painters in Florence and Scandicci
Castello dell’Acciaiolo, Scandicci – Italy
Through May 1st, 2011

 

Always used in the singular, Ghirlandaio is actually the trademark of the dynasty of such artists and entrepreneurs, who, beginning in the second half of the 15th century, dominated the scene of the Florentine Renaissance for a century. DOMENICO GHIRLANDAIO (1449-1494) was therefore the first artist in the Ghirlandaio family of which were also part his brothers DAVID GHIRLANDAIO (1452-1525) and BENEDETTO GHIRLANDAIO (1458-1497), his half-brother GIOVAMBATTISTA, his brother-in-law BASTIANO, and his son RIDOLFO GHIRLANDAIO (1483-1561). Numerous artists who were apprenticed to their school (MICHELANGELO and GRANACCI being the most renowned) contributed to spreading in Italy and Europe their fame as masterly illustrators of Florence and its civitas.

The Ghirlandaio’s workshop was above all a place with extraordinary professionals - very productive and organized according to modern criteria as to skills and roles - where Domenico and Ridolfo were the true creative masters of colour, some were extremely good at painting, and others besides expert in the workshop management.

Such a well-balanced, prolific and long-lived clan is now the focus of an extremely important exhibition, the first one on the family in its entirety, which involves the whole area from Florence to Scandicci as well as various other places in the hinterland. It is the land where the Ghirlandaio family lived and worked, rarely leaving it, disseminating it with masterpieces, so much so as to turn it into a spectacular and diffused museum.

Hence the title of the event: The Ghirlandaio Family. Renaissance Painters in Florence and Scandicci. The venues: the Castello dell’Acciaiolo in Scandicci, showcasing 15 works of art. From here visitors may follow a double itinerary leading them to large and small museums, palazzos and churches, villas and abbeys which house dozens of panel paintings, altarpieces and frescoes. Works which have mainly a religious character and represent the Madonna and Child, the nativity, the annunciation, but which also include portraits and figures that document the Florence of that time.

This implies that the exhibition is made up of a series of exhibitions and venues, ascribable to two well-known cultural projects: that of the Città degli Uffizi, conceived by Antonio Natali, director of the famous gallery, to showcase the immense artistic heritage kept in the Uffizi store rooms and promote the beautiful areas around Florence, and the Piccoli Grandi Musei one organized by the Ente Cassa di Risparmio di Firenze with an expert committee presided over by Antonio Paolucci, which has the aim of promoting the artistic and monumental heritage of the Florentine area.

It was in honour of the Ghirlandaio family that the two aforementioned projects merged. The initiative is promoted by the Special Office for Monuments and Fine Arts of the Polo Museale Fiorentino, the Uffizi Gallery and the Municipality of Scandicci, along with the Ente Cassa di Risparmio, the Regional Office for the Cultural and Landscape Heritage of Tuscany, the Monuments and Fine Arts Office of the metropolitan area (Florence-Pistoia-Prato), the Provincial Administration of Florence, the Municipality of Florence, and the Romualdo del Bianco Foundation. It is under the sponsorship of the Ministry of Cultural Heritage and Activities and involves the collaboration of the Tuscan Regional Administration, the Opificio delle Pietre Dure, the municipalities of Calenzano, Campi Bisenzio, Sesto Fiorentino, Signa and Lastra a Signa. The catalogue is published by Polistampa.

As it is known, the true surname of Domenico Ghirlandaio was Bigordi, and he and his brothers ended up being identified with the nickname of their father, an excellent goldsmith renowned for his special skill in making garlands (ghirlanda in Italian). From Scandicci, their homeland, they moved to Florence in the first half of the 15th century, and in this town, which was then the world capital of art, their workshop became established in the second half of the century. The exhibition tour starts from Scandicci. Curated by the art historian Annamaria Bernacchioni, the exhibition at the Castello dell’Acciaiolo showcases a famous painting by Domenico Ghirlandaio (Saints James, Stephen and Peter), the beautiful Madonna by Ridolfo Ghirlandaio (from the Fuligno Refectory) and another 14 works loaned by various museums in Florence.

From here two different Ghirlandaio exhibition tours start. The one in Florence includes the frescoes in the Sala dei Gigli of the Palazzo Vecchio, the Sassetti Chapel and the Tornabuoni Chapel - respectively in the churches of Santa Trinita and Santa Maria Novella - and the Adoration of the Magi at the Museo degli Innocenti. Numerous other masterpieces by such artists are in the Uffizi Gallery, the Accademia Gallery, the Palatine Gallery and in the Ognissanti and San Marco Refectories, all of which are to be visited even though not part of this specific programme.

The other tour is in the area north-west of Florence, on both sides of the Arno, abounding in works of art that the Ghirlandaio family left behind: in the houses which belonged to the family in San Martino and Colleramole, in the millenary Settimo Abbey, in the Church of Sant’Andrea in Campi Bisenzio, in the Sacred Art Museums of San Donnino and San Martino a Gangalandi. And also Mosciano, Giogoli, San Martino alla Palma, and San Colombano.

A fascinating journey in the Florentine Renaissance.

www.ghirlandaio.it

11-21-2010 / 05-01-2011

Expo BigMinis, CAPC Bordeaux - Musée d’art contemporain / Museum of Contemporary Art of Bordeaux, France

BigMinis, Fétiches de crise
CAPC, Musée d'art contemporain, Bordeaux
Commissaire d'exposition : Alexis Vaillant
Jusqu'au 27 février 2011

Please scroll down for english version

DAVID MUSGRAVE (artiste anglais né en 1973), Animal, 1998
Courtesy de l’artiste et de la galerie greengrassi, Londres © David Musgrave

 

Le mini est-il un signe avant-coureur de crise, ou bien un reflet, une conséquence de celle-ci ? Serait-il aussi une réponse efficace et décalée à LA crise ? Avec l’expo BigMinis, le CAPC se propose d’explorer la fascination singulière qu’exerce l’objet « réduit » à l’heure de la récession. Alors que la miniaturisation peut évoquer une réduction des coûts, du temps et de l’espace, la production du mini, elle, est stratégique. Le mini résiste à la réduction. Il existe depuis sa petite taille. Une petitesse insolente qui révèle, dans le contexte économico-culturel actuel, quelques-unes des pathologies capitalistes dans lesquelles le mini s’origine et auxquelles il répond. Le mini, un objet régulateur ?

L’exposition BigMinis regroupe les oeuvres d’une cinquantaine d’artistes contemporains prêtées par des collections publiques françaises et étrangères, des fondations et collections privées, des galeries et les artistes eux-mêmes. Son propos qui s’origine dans la conjoncture économique actuelle, se déploie sur fond de récession, et interroge, notamment, la notion de « fétiches de crise ».

On pense à tort que dans le mini, tout est proportionnel-lement réduit : il en irait ainsi de l’idée qui l’anime, comme de son impact. Or l’expérience démontre le contraire. Le mini perdure et marque. Il résisterait même à la crise. L’exposition est pensée dans cette perspective.

Pour rendre le propos dialectique et piquant, des oeuvres de grande taille animées par des mini-idées sont aussi montrées, signifiant ainsi que l’impact d’une idée véhiculée par un objet n’est pas proportionnelle à la taille de ce dernier. Autrement dit, que les oeuvres de grande taille sont loin d’avoir le monopole des « grandes » idées et que les idées courtes ne sont pas nécessairement proportionnelles à la taille des objets qui les véhiculent.

Compte-tenu des proportions maximalistes du CAPC auxquelles l’exposition répond en partie, un dispositif a dû être inventé, les "bigminis" ne s’exposant pas vraiment comme des standards. La galerie new formula du rez-de-chaussée du musée ressemblera à un terrain de jeu mental. Et c’est dans une forêt de socles aux allures post-Tetris qu’il faudra parfois chercher les oeuvres. Les minis ignorent les canons de l’époque. Uniques, les oeuvres d’art minis, si tant est qu’elles soient ainsi catégorisables, sont comme mûes par la vie. Qu’elles soient belles et laides importe peu. Leurs dimensions, leurs matériaux, leurs prouesses techniques et conceptuelles les rendent enviables et attachantes, stimulantes pour l’oeil et l’esprit. Elles surprennent et s’imposent. On ne peut rien leur retirer. Elles impactent jusqu’à réveiller la cleptomanie qui sommeille en nous.

Contrairement au king size, le mini doit se voir de près. Il présuppose une mise au point, d’où l’emprise qu’il exerce sur la sphère du désir. En même temps, le petit fait le vide autour de lui car pour être vu, il a besoin de plus d’espace. Il prend donc plus de place que ce que sa taille laissait supposer, d’où sa capacité à devenir fétiche. Le rapport qu’il entretient avec l’environnement (la ville pour la voiture, l’espace d’exposition pour l’objet d’art, la poche pour le tamagotchi, ...) et avec nous, devient alors politique.

Après avoir incarné le boom-object des pays industrialisés, quand le raccourcissement des jupes et des voitures avait pris la dimension d’un phénomène de société, créant la vogue du mot « mini » en Occident, l’objet compact se mesure aujourd’hui à l’aune du mignon (objet léché superflu, symptomatique), de l’inquiétant (objet sériel, culte, fétichisé) et du résistant (objet critique, Pear to Pear, individualiste). On déteste l’aimer et on aime le détester. On le veut en cachette et on ne l’a jamais assez vu.

BigMinis au CAPC
Galerie NEW FORMULA rez-de-chaussée du musée
Exposition conçue par Alexis VAILLANT, responsable de la programmation, CAPC, musée d’art contemporain.de Bordeaux

CATALOGUE DE L’EXPOSITION : BigMinisBook
Sous la direction d'Alexis Vaillant
Contributions de Bruce Hainley, Jennifer Higgie, Claire Moulène, David Musgrave, Aaron Schuster, Alexis Vaillant
Français / Anglais, 10,5 x 7 cm, 300 pages, 160 illustrations quadri, 18 EUR

_______________ English Version _______________

 
BigMinis
Fetishes of crisis
CAPC, Museum of Contemporary Art of Bordeaux
Exhibition Curator: Alexis Vaillant
Through 27 february 2011

With the exhibition BigMinis, the CAPC is offering a plunge into the heart of the ‘compact’ object, the idea being to explore the fascination that things ‘scaled down’ wield these days, afflicted by the crisis as we all are. If it is possible to see in the mini, a harbinger of crisis, as well as a reflection and a critical consequence of this latter, we must also not overlook the fact that it usually represents an unexpected and off-kilter response to the recession. Because a reduction in size conveys the idea of a reduction in cost, space and time, it likens the production of the compact to an intelligent, reactive production, adapted to its economic and cultural context. A control-production.

The mini is at once near and far. Unlike the King-size which can be seen from afar, the ‘mini’, for its part, has to be seen up close. You have to get near to it in order to get a focus. The small makes a void around it, which is how it takes up all its room. To be well displayed, it needs space, and to be properly seen, a decision has to be made about the distance separating it from us. For the room it takes up is more than its size might have us suppose. And it is by taking up this room that the compact object deploys its capacities. Whence issues the thoroughly special relation that it introduces between the environment (city for car, exhibition venue for art object, pocket for tamagoci…) and us. It is a 1:1 relation of resistance. We think, wrongly, that in the small everything is proportionately scaled down, which also applies to the idea which informs it and its impact. Experience shows the opposite. The small endures. To make things fragrant and spicy, large works are also being shown in the exhibition, insinuating that the mini-idea can be enlarged and last as long as the ‘grand’ idea contained in the mini-object.

The exhibition BigMinis is a dialectical show which brings together a selection of works by some forty contemporary artists, enhanced by several emblematic historical works all coming from French and foreign public collections, private foundations, private collections, galleries and artists. It has come into being in the current economic climate, with the aim, of questioning the fascinating attraction with what we might call “fetishes of crisis”. The mini artworks, which are surprising and unique in relation to the canons of the day and age, are as if driven by life. Beautiful or ugly, it matters not a lot. Their dimensions, materials and technical and conceptual prowess all make them enviable, engaging and stimulating for eye and mind alike. But today, they provoke and mark. You cannot take anything away from them, and they often bestir the kleptomania that lurks in all of us. 

After incarnating the ‘boom object’ of the industrialised nations in the 1950s and 1960s, unaided, the compact object is nowadays regarded at once as cute (minority, superfluous) and disquieting (metaphysical, critical, and mutinous). We hate to love it and love to hate it. The contemporary mini has sex appeal. Even when multiplied, it remains one-off.

Taking into account the maximalist proportions of the CAPC to which the show responds, a unique and seemingly ‘scale-less’ display is arranged, and complemented by a ‘you see it, you want it’ bilingual mini catalogue (7 x 5 cm, 300 pages, colour), Editor Alexis Vaillant, contributions Bruce Hainley, Jennifer Higgie, David Musgrave, Aaron Schuster & Alexis Vaillant, co-edited by CAPC, Bordeaux & Sternberg Press, Berlin, New York.

BigMinis
At the CAPC - Museum of Modern Art of Bordeaux
gallery NEW FORMULA (ground floor) 

Other exhibitions
Robert Breer, through 27 February 2011

CAPC
Musée d'art contemporain / Museum of Contemporary Art of Bordeaux
Entrepôt Lainé. 7 rue Ferrère
33000 BORDEAUX - FRANCE

www.capc-bordeaux.fr

Panorama Artistes de la Galerie Michel Rein, Paris. Une exposition qui donne une idée du programme de cette galerie

Panorama
Artists of the gallery, selected works
Galerie Michel Rein, Paris
Jusqu'au 15 janvier 2011

Please scroll down for english version

PANORAMA est une exposition collective composée d’oeuvres d’artistes de la galerie Michel Rein. L’exposition répond au double sens du mot-titre : en même temps vaste paysage et vue d’ensemble d’une situation. Panorama exprime la diversité des œuvres présentées (sculptures, peintures, vidéos, dessins...) et une idée du programme de la galerie.

 

SAADANE AFIF, Stalactites (Few More Mistakes), 2004
Barre de bois rond
190 x 3,5 cm, œuvre unique

Suspendu au plafond, Stalactites reprend l’œuvre d’André Cadere Six barres en bois rond (1975). Les couleurs originales, issues de principes mathématiques développés au gré des pérégrinations de Cadere dans l’espace urbain, sont ici retravaillées en nuances de gris sous le tire Few More Mistakes. Afif fige l’ensemble des promenades de Cadere et crée une œuvre sur les principes du remix et de la continuation qui lui sont chers. Avec cette œuvre, il évoque tour à tour la déambulation dans l’espace urbain, la notion de Copyshare, de déplacement et de perspective. Lauréat du Prix Marcel Duchamp 2009, Saâdane Afif expose son projet Anthologie de l’humour noir au Centre Pompidou jusqu’au 3 janvier 2011.

 

JEAN-PIERRE BERTRAND, RED 001136, 2006
Acrylique sur papier miel, plexiglas, cadre acier
204 x 153,5 x 1,8 cm

« Les peintures plasmiques sont l’empreinte d’un corps transparent, au ras, au plus proche du volume de plexiglas. L’empreinte affleure à la surface, demeure fraîche, ne coagulera pas. Elle semble être un creux dans l’uniformité cadrée de la surface. Les cadres qui l’entourent sont, selon, facteurs d’apparition ou de disparition des empreintes dans la surface qu’ils circonscrivent, en particulier les cadres en matière noire, alors que le rôle des cadres meulés, argentés mats, serait de s’en écarter, de la laisser vivre. Ils se veulent neutres, la neutralité étant en soi un choix.
Le rouge acquiert un fort pouvoir de coagulation mélangé à une faible quantité de miel. La légère nuance colorée est le résultat du trajet du rayon lumineux après qu’il a traversé le papier au medium pratiquement translucide, rebondi sur un fond coloré jaune vert que les papiers occultent pour les traverser à nouveau en sens inverse. Il y a translation optique au sein de la très faible épaisseur du cadre. » Jean-Pierre Bertrand

 

JORDI COLOMER, Anarchitekton (Bucarest), 2003
Maquette en bois et carton, 185 x 58 x 50 cm, œuvre vidéographique 3’10
Œuvre unique

« Après des études d'architecture marquées par le modernisme, Jordi Colomer a poursuivi une interrogation sur la potentialité émancipatrice de l'architecture et sur le décalage entre les bâtiments modernes et leur appropriation par les habitants. [...] A Bucarest, le parcours commence à la manière d'une parodie du parcours de la flamme olympique, avec une bouteille en plastique fixée au bout d'un manche en bois. Objet sans doute trouvé, mis en scène. Le personnage court le long d'un lac, dans un no man's land en direction de la ville. Idroj traverse ensuite Bucarest avec la maquette des immeubles squelettes de la dernière période de Ceaucescu, restés inachevés, avant d'arriver à la Maison du peuple, maintenant Palais du parlement. [...]
Anarchitekton serait ainsi une sorte d'oxymore, travestissant les déambulations dans la pratique artistique, des surréalistes aux situationnistes, en puisant son ressort narratif dans le discours utopique des avant-gardes architecturales. » Marie-Ange BRAYER, Jordi Colomer, Fuegogratis, Editions du Jeu de Paume / Le point du Jour, 2008

 

DIDIER FAUSTINO, Hand Architecture, 2009
Megaphone, 35 x 67 cm
édition 3 + 1AP, exemplaire n°2/3

Le mégaphone est d'habitude utilisé pour communiquer auprès d’une large audience. Ici il devient un mode de rencontre entre deux individus. A l’aide d’un silencieux, l'utilisateur du mégaphone peut chuchoter un message intime à une seule personne. C'est l'antithèse d'une démonstration, une sorte d'intimité collective impliquant seulement deux personnes, n'importe où dans l'espace public. La personne "capturée" par Hand Architecture devient visuellement isolée de son environnement, sa seule référence étant la voix de son interlocuteur.

 

MATHEW HALE, Pages of the MIRIAM BOOKS, Page 179 of DIE NEUE MIRIAM, 2007
Collages, matériaux divers
Œuvre unique, 69 x 30,5 x 3 cm

Mathew Hale définit ses collages et ses dessins comme les résultats d’« improvisations associatives », affirmant ainsi le hasard comme outil sélectif et mode d’élaboration de ses œuvres.
Son esthétique du détournement opère des raccords inattendus entre des images hétérogènes et produit tour à tour un langage politique et/ou humoristique.

 

ARMAND JALUT, Paesagio Grandioso I, 2010
Huile de colza et pastel sur papier
7 œuvres uniques de 48 x 48 cm chaque

« Ces séries de pizzas sont une variation sur le thème du paysage. La technique est inspirée des "Study for skin" (1962) de Jasper Johns. L'empreinte de la pizza est réalisée en enduisant le dos d'huile de colza, puis, sur la zone graisseuse, est appliquée en tapotant du doigt, le pastel. Les couleurs sont issues d'une boîte de couleurs "Paysage" de Sennelier.
Le processus de cette oeuvre est un détournement de l'usage classique du pastel. Elle fait référence à la palette, réorganisée à partir d'une sélection conventionnelle. Elle joue aussi sur le contraste de médiums, l'un inepte, l'autre noble. Le paysage est ici lunaire, le geste simplifié à l'extrême, à l'inverse de l'emphase présente dans mes peintures.
Le gras et la tache sont au service de la préciosité. L'usage de l'italien renvoie aux origine de l'outil pizza et apporte une touche de romantisme à un ensemble un peu prosaïque. » Armand Jalut
Cette œuvre a été exposée au Palais de Tokyo pour l’exposition "Dynasty" (11.06 - 05.09.2010).

 

 DIDIER MARCEL, Sans titre (campus), 2007
Tapis, pure laine tuftée main, matériaux divers, système rotatif, inox poli
145 x 92 x 75 cm, ed 2 + 1AP, AP

Cette maquette s'inscrit dans la continuité d'une série de travaux débutée en 1993 qui a vu les « objets architecturaux » évoluer de la reconstitution de bâtiments en démolition vers des objets normatifs, de zones industrielles qui ont gommé structurellement toute fonctionnalité et où leur valeur de signe se réduit à la qualité de la surface. Sans titre (campus) reprend une colline dijonnaise près du campus universitaire où se trouvent les vestiges d'un panneau publicitaire. Le "tapis de verdure" est en moquette, matériau qu’affectionne particulièrement Didier Marcel : « Au début des années 1990, c'était quelque chose de délicat à utiliser car cela renvoyait à l'univers des bureaux. Aujourd'hui, c'est devenu un matériau noble. Pour moi, elle représente une sorte de réduction du socle... ».

 

ORLAN, Différences et répétitions, Robe sans corps, Super White, 2009
Sculpture de plis en résine, peinture
190 x diam 130 cm, oeuvre unique

Les Robes sans corps sont des sculptures de plis qui s’inscrivent dans la filiation du travail d’ORLAN sur le drapé baroque. Dès les années 1980, ORLAN, drapée dans des plis savants, dialoguait avec l’histoire de l’art et en particulier la statuaire du Bernin.
Réinterprétation d’œuvres historiques, cette sculpture soulève la question de la copie et du clonage, de la différence et de la répétition. Elle relie les époques (du gothique au pop-art en passant par le baroque) et la permanence des représentations.
Cette œuvre a été exposée à l’Abbaye de Maubuisson pour l’exposition "ORLAN, Unions mixtes, mariages libres et noces barbares" (commissaire Caroline Coll, septembre 2009 - mars 2010) et au Musée Bourdelle pour l’exposition "En Mai fais ce qu’il te plaît !" (commissaire Juliette Laffon, mai - septembre 2010).

 

DAN PERJOVSCHI, Free style, 2009
Feutre sur papier, 29,7 x 42 cm

Dan Perjovschi mixe dans ses oeuvres le dessin, la caricature et le graffiti, dessinant à même les murs des galeries et des musées. Ses dessins ont pour sujet les évènements politiques, sociaux et culturels.
Depuis 10 ans, Dan Perjovschi passe d’un mur à l’autre (en tombant parfois au sol ou même suspendu au plafond), racontant le monde qui nous entoure. Comme il le dit lui-même, s’il le dessine, c’est qu’il le comprend. Le style est anarchique, sans structure apparente. Une sorte de jazz visuel. D’une décision de portée mondiale au goût du premier café du matin, la distance se mesure en centimètres. Dessin après dessin, Perjovschi tisse la grande histoire du monde contemporain, avec humour, ironie et empathie, n’ayant besoin de personne et sans règles prédéfinies.
"Free Style" est le titre de la dernière exposition personnelle de Dan Perjovschi à la galerie Michel Rein (18/04 - 23/05/2009).

 

ALLAN SEKULA, Polonia and Other Fables, Ladies Auxilaary Polish Army Veterans of World War II. Polish, 2007-2009
Chromogenic print, 122 x 122 cm, édition 5 + 1AP,exemplaire n°2/5

La série Polonia contient de nombreuses références autobiographiques, les grands parents paternels d’Allan Sekula ayant immigré de Pologne aux Etats-Unis au début du XXe siècle.
« La série Polonia n'est ni socio-documentaire ni autobiographique, il s’agit plutôt d’une tentative de construire quelque chose avec des photographies, de la vidéo, un graphisme et un texte qui fonctionne comme un roman historique devenu fou ou un film de fiction à large portée, s'attardant de temps en temps sur les détails, comme c’est souvent le cas avec la photographie. » Allan Sekula
Polonia and Other Fables a été exposé à la Renaissance Society, University of Chicago (20.09 - 13.12.2009), à la Zacheta National Gallery of Art, Varsovie (12.12.2009 - 28.02.2010) et au Ludwig Museum, Budapest (09.07 - 19.09.2010).

 

CHRISTIAN HIDAKA, The Others, 2010
Huile sur toile, 200 x 220 cm

« L’artiste anglais Chistian Hidaka réalise de vastes peintures imaginaires, franchement psychédéliques, dont la construction par étagement de plans successifs renvoie ouvertement à la peinture japonaise traditionnelle. Ses origines japonaises, tout comme le grand intérêt qu’il porte à la peinture impressionniste, l’ont très vite familiarisé avec ce pan de l’histoire de l’art que l’occidentalocentrisme régnant continue de considérer trop souvent comme une simple curiosité.
La particularité de la peinture de Christian Hidaka tient à l’intrication des motifs et des procédés picturaux, une « peinture de précision », une grammaire picturale qu’il a pris soin d’élaborer, de complexifier au fil des années... La brume et les mousses qui se confondent souvent sont tamponnées avec une brosse à poils durs. Tandis que les sillons concentriques que laissent les poils dans la peinture à l’huile évoquent inévitablement le ratissage des jardins Zen, la technique rappelle le fameux précepte chinois de l’Unique trait de pinceau qui n’autorise aucun repentir. » Raphaël Zarka

 

MARIA THEREZA ALVES, Iracema (de Questembert), 2009
œuvre vidéographique transférée sur DVD, 26’43
ed 5 + 2AP, n°2/5

"L’art de Maria Thereza Alves s’établit sur la base d’une pensée écologique. Elle aborde les écosystèmes à travers le dynamisme des équilibres générés par la diversité des espèces. Elle met en place des procédures d’enquête, nécessitant en tout premier lieu son inscription dans le paysage spécifique, humain et territorial, qu’elle aborde." Pascal Beausse
Iracema (de Questembert) retrace l’histoire d’une jeune femme indigène du Brésil qui hérite d’une propriété française et fait le voyage jusqu’en France pour en prendre possession. Plus tard, elle y fondera un institut pour l’art et la science. Maria Thereza Alves examine les phénomènes sociaux et culturels, en particulier les situations qui remettent en question les circonstances sociales qui concernent ce que nous pensons savoir et qui nous pensons être.
Iracema (de Questembert) a été réalisée pour la Biennale de Lyon 2009 (commissaire Hou Hanru), où elle a reçu le Prix de la Francophonie. L’édition 1/5 de cette œuvre appartient aux Galeries Nationales du Canada.

 

YURI LEIDERMAN, Geopoetics-15 (Louvre variant), 2010
oeuvre videographique, couleur, son , 2’09
ed 3 + 1 AP, n°1/3

Yuri Leideman a réalisé cette performance filmée à l’occasion de l’exposition Contrepoint russe, de l’icône au musée en passant par l’avant-garde au Musée du Louvre (visible jusqu’au 15.01.2011, commissaire Marie-Laure Bernadac).
A travers cette action, l’artiste convoque le fantôme des idéologies politiques, devenues objets inexistants. Yuri Leideman laisse apparaître une géopoétique nouvelle, qui entretient des relations « libres et perverses » avec la géopolitique, mais qui n’exprime rien.

 

ELISA PONE, I’m looking for something to believe in, 2007
Œuvre vidéographique transférée sur DVD, 8’
ed 5+1 , n°4/5

Elisa Pône révèle la friction propre à l’artifice. À la finalité sans fin s’oppose l’acte de destruction que représente une voiture brûlée. L’œuvre d’Elisa Pône n’en est pas moins poétique, attestant un travail sur la vibration de la couleur […]. Elisa Pône réalise des feux d’artifices d’intérieur, ou dans des espaces confinés, qui décuplent l’impact visuel, odorant et sonore par une proximité inhabituelle des spectateurs. La vidéo « I’m Looking for Something to Believe In », dont le titre renvoie à la chanson des Ramones « Something to Believe in », est un plan fixe, de jour, sur une voiture blanche abandonnée en forêt, au bord d’un étang. Les grenouilles coassent, les oiseaux chantent, puis ce sont les premières explosions, un bruit assourdissant, la contrainte spatiale ne résiste que peu de temps. L’habitacle cède. Les vitres tombent. La fumée s’échappe, se dissipe, puis les bruits de la nature recouvrent leurs droits. La fête est finie… » Julien Blanpied
Cette œuvre est actuellement exposée au MAC/VAL dans le cadre de "Let's Dance" (depuis le 22.10.10 jusqu’au 16.01.2011).

 

RAPHAEL ZARKA, Gibellina Vecchia, 2010
Film 16 mm transféré en HD, 10’30
ed 5 + 1, n°1/5

Pour Gibellina Vecchia, Raphaël Zarka est retourné sur le site de l’œuvre de l’artiste italien Alberto Burri Il Grande Cretto, réalisée en 1985-1989 en Sicile, et où il avait déjà réalisé un premier film, Cretto, en 2005. Dans un lointain écho à Melancholia de Dürer et à la poétique des ruines d’Hubert Robert, il s’attache ici à suivre les fréquentations et les visites journalières de l’œuvre, des bergers aux touristes, des étudiants aux architectes, chacun en donnant une représentation singulière.
Raphaël Zarka nous invite à penser l’œuvre comme site et le geste quotidien comme mode de l’appropriation et de l’expérience. Il est actuellement en résidence à la Villa Medicis, Rome.

 

_______________ ENGLISH VERSION _______________

 

PANORAMA: Artists of the gallery, selected works
Michel Rein Gallery, Paris - France
Through January 15, 2011

PANORAMA is a group show exhibiting selected artworks by artists of the gallery. The exhibition plays with the double sense of the title: at once a vast landscape and the overview of a situation. Panorama shows the diversity of the works presented (sculpture, painting, video, drawing…) within the gallery's programme.

 

SAADANE AFIF, Stalactites (Few More Mistakes), 2004
Round wooden blocks
190 x 3,5 cm, unique piece

Saâdane Afif takes André Cadere’s artwork Six barres en bois rond (1975) and suspends it as a stalactite. The original colours, which come from the mathematical principles developed from André Cadere walks in urban spaces, are here tainted in shades of grey under the title Few More Mistakes. Afif freezes the ensemble of Cadere’s walks and creates an artwork using the principles of remixing and development that are so familiar to him. With this work the artist conjures up the idea of wandering around an urban landscape, as well as the notions of copy sharing, displacement and perspective.
Winner for the Prix Marcel Duchamp 2009, Saâdane Afif presents his project Anthologie de l’humour noir at the Centre Pompidou until
the 3rd January 2011.

 

JEAN-PIERRE BERTRAND, RED 001136, 2006
Acrylic on honey paper, plexiglas, steel frame
204 x 153,5 x 1,8 cm

“The plasmic paintings are the imprint of a transparent body, as close as possible to the volume of Plexiglas. The imprint that appears on the surface remains fresh, so as to not coagulate. It seems to be a hollow in the uniformity of the surface. The frames that surround it are factors of the appearance or disappearance of imprints in the surface that they confine, in particular the dark frames; silvered matt frames deviate from it, let it live. They want to be neutral, the neutrality being a choice in itself.
The red acquires a strong power of coagulation when mixed with a small quantity of honey. The light colored nuance is the result of the beam of light after it penetrated the paper. The light bounced on a green yellow colored base, hidden by the papers, to cross them again the other way around. There is an optical translation within the very weak thickness of the frame.” Jean-Pierre Bertrand

 

JORDI COLOMER, Anarchitekton (Bucarest), 2003
Model in wood and cardboard, 185 x 58 x 50 cm, video 3’10
Unique piece

"After studying architecture, with a particular interest in modernism, Jordi Colomer went to explore the emancipatory potential of architecture and the discrepancy between modern buildings and how they are appropriated by their occupants. [...] In Bucharest the sequence begins like a parody of the progress of the Olympic flame with a plastic bottle fixed to a wooden handle - no doubt a found object that was immediately integrated into the mise-en-scène. The figure runs alongside a lake, in a no-man's-land, toward the city. Idroj then crosses Bucharest with models of the skeleton buildings from the late Ceaucescu era, which were left unfinished, and arrives in front of the House of the People, now the Palace of the Parliament. [...]
Anarchitekton could thus be seen as a kind of oxymoron, travestying various kinds of walks in art history, from the practices of the Surrealists to those of the Situationists, by drawing its narrative dimension from the utopian discourse of the architectural avant-gardes." Marie-Ange BRAYER in Jordi Colomer, Fuegogratis, Editions du Jeu de Paume / Le point du Jour, 2008

 

DIDIER FAUSTINO, Hand Architecture, 2009
Megaphone, 35 x 67 cm
edition 3 + 1AP, edition n°2/3

Megaphones are usually used to broadcast to a wide audience. Here it becomes a medium for the meeting of two individuals. With a silencer, the user of the megaphone can whisper an intimate message to one single person. It is the antithesis of a demonstration, a sort of collective intimacy involving only two people anywhere in the public space.
The person captured by Hand Architecture becomes visually and aurally isolated from his or her surroundings, their only reference being the voice of the interlocutor.

 

MATHEW HALE, Pages of the MIRIAM BOOKS, Page 179 of DIE NEUE MIRIAM, 2007
Collages, mixed media
Unique piece, 69 x 30,5 x 3 cm

Mathew Hale defines his collages and his drawings as resulting from “associative improvisations”, affirming chance as a selective tool and means of development within his work.
His aesthetic is produced by creating unexpected links between a mixture of images which in turn develop their own political or often humorous language.

 

ARMAND JALUT, Paesagio Grandioso I, 2010
Rapeseed oil and pastel on paper
7 unique pieces, 48 x 48 cm each

"This series of pizzas is a variation on the theme of landscape. The technique is inspired by Jasper John’s Study for Skin (1962). The pizza’s imprint is created using rapeseed oil, then, pastel is applied by finger over the greasy area. The colours themselves come from a series called ”Landscape” by Sennelier. The process of the work hijacks the classical usage of pastels. It makes a reference to the pallet, reorganised from its conventional selection. They also play with the contrast of the two media, one rather clumsy and awkward whilst the other deemed rather noble. The landscape is lunar and the gestures used are simplified to the extreme, rather the opposite of the emphasis present in my paintings. The use of Italian in the title recalls the origin of the pizza and brings a touch of romanticism to this rather prosaic series." Armand Jalut
This artwork was exhibited at the Palais de Tokyo for the group show Dynasty (11.06 – 05.09.2010).

 

DIDIER MARCEL, Sans titre (campus), 2007
Pure wool, hand woven rug, mixed media, rotating system, stainless steel.
145 x 92 x 75 cm, ed 2 + 1AP, AP

This model forms part of a series which began in 1993 and which first saw “architectural objects” evolving from the reconstitution of demolished buildings towards normative objects and industrial areas which have structurally erased all functionality and where their value is reduced to simply the quality of the surface. Sans titre (campus) captures a hill in Dijon close to the university campus where we find the vestiges of a billboard. The “grass rug” is made of carpet, a material towards which Didier Marcel is particularly affectionate “At the beginning of the 90s, it was something rather tricky to use because it brought to mind the office environment . Today its become rather a noble material. For me it represents a sort of dissolution of the pedestal." Didier Marcel

 

ORLAN, Différences et répétitions, Robe sans corps, Super White, 2009
Sculpture of folds in resin, paint
190 x diam 130 cm, unique piece

The Robes sans corps are sculptures of folds which come under ORLAN’s series of baroque artworks. Since the 1980s ORLAN, draped in folds, has created a discussion with art history and in particular the statue of Bernin.
The reinterpretation of historical artworks, these sculptures constitute a series of unique pieces each one different, bringing to the forefront the question of copying and cloning, difference and repetition. They bring together different eras of art history (from the gothic period to pop-art, passing by the baroque) and the permanence of representations.
This artwork was exhibited at l’Abbaye de Maubuisson for the exhibition "ORLAN, Unions mixtes, mariages libres et noces barbares" (curated by Caroline Coll, Sept 2009 - March 2010) and at the Musée Bourdelle for the exhibition "En Mai fais ce qu’il te plaît !" (curated by Juliette Laffon, 06.05 - 19.09.2010).

 

DAN PERJOVSCHI, Free style, 2009
Felt tip on paper, 29,7 x 42 cm

For 10 years, Dan Perjovschi, has moved from one wall to another (occasionally stumbling across a floor or a ceiling) describing the world which surrounds us. As he himself says if he draws something its because he understands it. The style is anarchic, without apparent structure. A sort of visual jazz. There is very little separating decisions of international importance from the first drop of coffee in the morning. Drawing after drawing Perjovschi weaves the large history of the contemporary world. With humour, irony, empathy, with no need for people and without predefined rules, Dan Perjovschi mixes in his works, sketches, caricatures and graffiti, drawing directly on gallery and museum walls. The subjects of his drawings range from social to political and cultural events
Free Style is the title of the last solo show of Dan Perjovschi at galerie Michel Rein (18/04 - 23/05/2009).

 

ALLAN SEKULA, Polonia and Other Fables, Ladies Auxilaary Polish Army Veterans of World War II. Polish, 2007-2009
Chromogenic print, 122 x 122 cm
Edition 5 + 1AP,exemplaire n°2/5

The series Polonia and Other Fables contains a number of autobiographical references, Allan Sekula’s grandparents having emigrated from Poland to the United States at the beginning of the 20th century.
”The Polonia series is neither a sociologically-grounded documentary nor an autobiography, but rather another attempt to make something with photographs, video, graphics and text that functions like a historical novel gone crazy or a fiction film with erratic epic scope, stopping once or twice too often to linger on the details, as is often the case with photographs.” Allan Sekula
Polonia and Other Fables has been exhibited at Renaissance Society, University of Chicago (20.09 - 13.12.2009), at Zacheta National Gallery of Art, Varsovie (12.12.2009 - 28.02.2010) and at Ludwig Museum, Budapest (09.07 - 19.09.2010),

 

CHRISTIAN HIDAKA, The Others, 2010
Oil on canvas, 200 x 220 cm

"The English artist Chistian Hidaka depicts vast imaginary and truly psychedelic landscapes, on large horizontal canvases, which he renders from a successive layered construction of grounds openly referring to Sino-Japanese paintings. From Japanese descent and with an interest for Impressionist Art, he got rapidly familiarized with this part of art history, which the ruling occident-centric continues to consider too often as a mere curiosity.
The particularity of Christian's paintings originates from his intricate motifs and technique. The mist and moss, often blending into the landscape, are often dabbed on with a hard brush. Whereas the concentric tracks left behind by the hairs in the oil paint undoubtedly recalls the raking of Zen gardens, the technique resembles equally some of Bernard Frize's paintings and the Chinese precept of the unique brushstroke precluding any corrections." Raphaël Zarka

 

MARIA THEREZA ALVES, Iracema (de Questembert), 2009
Video on DVD, 26’43
ed 5 + 2AP, n°2/5

"Maria Thereza Alves’s art is based on ecological ideas. She approaches ecosystems via the balance created by the diversity of species. She sets up investigations into specific human and territorial landscapes that she approaches." Pascal Beausse
Iracema (of Questembert) tells the story of a young, native Brazilian woman who inherits a French property and makes the journey to France. Later, she will there establish an institute for arts and science. Maria Thereza Alves examines the social and cultural phenomenons, in particular the situations which question the social circumstances which concern what we think and who we think we are.
Iracema (of Questembert) was created for the 2009 Lyon Biennial (curator Hou Hanrou), where it received the Francophony Prize. The edition 1/5 is own by the National Gallery of Canada.

 

YURI LEIDERMAN, Geopoetics-15 (Louvre variant), 2010
Video on DVD, color, sound , 2’09
ed 3 + 1 AP, n°1/3

Yuri Leideman held this performance at the opening of the exhibition Contrepoint russe, de l’icône au musée en passant par l’avant-garde at the Musée du Louvre (on show until 15.01.2011, curator Marie-Laure Bernadac).
Through this action, the artist convokes the ghost of political ideologies which become inexistent objects. A new Geopoetics appears which holds a "free and perverse" relationship with geopolitics and which equally expresses nothing.

 

Elisa PONE, I’m looking for something to believe in, 2007
Video on DVD, 8’
ed 5+1 , n°4/5

"Elisa Pône reveals the tension inherent in fireworks, contrasting their gratuitous use for pleasure with the act of destruction represented by a burned out car. Her work is also poetic, however, its use of vibrant colour bringing to mind the historical vocabulary of painting […]. Pône’s fireworks are made for use indoors, in confined spaces. This heightens their visual impact and the intensity of their smell and sound, due to the unwonted closeness of the spectators. Her video "I’m looking for something to believe in", a reference to the Ramones song "Something to believe in", is a fixed shot, by day, showing a white car abandoned beside a pond in a forest. The frogs are croaking, the birds are singing, and then suddenly come the deafening noise of the first explosions. The structure cannot withhold the blast for long. The passenger compartment gives way, the windows shatter. Smoke seeps out, spreads, and then nature regains the upper hand. Party over." --Julien Blanpied
This video work is currently exhibited at MAC/VAL in the exhibition "Let's Dance" (since October 22, 2010 through January 16, 2011).

 

RAPHAEL ZARKA, Gibellina Vecchia, 2010
16 mm Film transferred into HD, 10’30
ed 5 + 1, n°1/5

For Gibellina Vechia, Raphaël Zarka returned to the location in Sicily where Italian artist Alberto Burri created Il Grande Cretto between 1985-89 and where Zarka filmed his work Cretto in 2005. The work refers to the artwork Melancholia by Dürer and to the poetry of Hubert Robert's ruins. Here he attempts to follow the daily tours of the work from shepherds to tourists, from students to architects, each one giving a singular representation of it. Raphaël Zarka invites us to think of the work as a venue and of the daily gesture as a way of appropriation and experience. He is currently in residence at the Villa Medicis, Rome.

 

GALERIE MICHEL REIN
42 rue de Turenne
F-75003 PARIS
Open Tuesday > Saturday
11 am > 7 pm

www.michelrein.com

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A propos de la galerie Michel Rein 

Exposition précédente : Michael Riedel

27.11.2010 -15.01.2011

Matteo Basile - ThisHumanity Exhibition at Galleria Pack, Milan, Italy before the SAM, Singapore

Matteo Basilé, ThisHumanity 

Galleria Pack, Milan, Italy 

Through January 29, 2011 

MATTEO BASILE, From THISHUMANITY exhibition
Courtesy Galleria Pack, Milano, Italy

Galleria Pack in Milan is hosting an exhibition by MATTEO BASILE entitled THISHUMANITY, inspired by one of the foremost masterpieces of late Gothic Florentine artwork, The Battle of San Romano by PAOLO UCCELLO (1397-1475).

The exhibition includes 10 large-scale photographs by the Roman artist inspired by the famous triptych Paolo Uccello was commissioned to paint in 1438 by the Barolini Salimbeni family in order to commemorate the Florentine victory over troops from Siena allied with Milan that took place on April 1, 1432.

In the Florentine painter’s artwork everything appears frozen in place, ready for the final act. It was precisely this “image capture,” subdivided into three different moments, that inspired Matteo Basilé to create the subsequent frame, in other words the physical clash between its peoples and imaginary armies. In The Battle of San Romano, Paolo Uccello experimented for the first time ever with techniques in perspective that were revolutionary for his day, creating multiple visions within the same scene. The artwork THISHUMANITY is put together following the same rules of perspective employed by the fifteenth-century painter, this time created using postproduction digital photography techniques.

Faithful to his expressive intent, Basilé is creating the sets within which this great battle will be set directly in South East Asia. The artist has lived and worked there for some time now, and has been able to involve a multitude of identities and female characters ready for the clash.

Women are the protagonists of Basilé’s work – their fight for their own identities and independence – connecting two artworks divided by centuries; a female universe ready to take to the field for a world dominated by men. It is a sort of The Rape of the Sabine Women in reverse, in which rather than being raped, the protagonists fight to reveal and protect their own identities. It is a purifying battle in which women of different races and with different pasts face their enemies down in a fight to the last breath in order to escape a destiny that makes them increasingly resemble the opposite sex.

Following the show in Milan, Thishumanity will be put on display in SAM, the SINGAPORE ART MUSEUM.

MATTEO BASILE, From THISHUMANITY exhibition
Courtesy Galleria Pack, Milano, Italy

MATTEO BASILE BIOGRAPHY

Matteo Basilé (Rome, 1974) debuted in 1997, when he was just 23 years old, with a solo show at the Il Ponte Contemporanea gallery in Rome. His artworks have been exhibited in some of the most important art venues in Italy and abroad. He won the New York prize in 2002. In 2007, Basilé had his first solo show in an Italian art institution: the MART in Rovereto. In 2009, he was among the artists selected for the Italian Pavilion at the 53rd edition of the Venice Biennale.

Matteo Basilé is considered one of the foremost protagonists of European digital art. For the past decade he has been blending digital culture with classical iconography, re-inventing the portrait. The artist uses digital photography in order to develop and expand his personal code for contemporary painting, utilizing the computer as linguistic prosthesis in order to expand each vision and lend depth to the splendid surfaces of his artworks. Basilé’s world is an iconographic universe extending between technological mannerism and artistic surrealism. In his case, these two historic art movements mark a novel use of citation that tends towards synthesis and the affirmation of art as a meta-language.

Captured within the digital frame, his subjects become timeless icons. Marks traced upon their skins recount the geography of intimate memories. It is the face understood as voyage, memory as the warehouse for that which Basilé defines as the “archive of the soul.” His collection of faces and bodies tells the tale of a humanity dear to the artist. Women, children, men and the elderly are catapulted into the artist’s timeless imagination with the goal of passing on a three-dimensional verb capable of uniting painting with cinema, writing with material, photography with sound, and scenic space with an audience.

Basilé tests, manipulates and synthesizes his subjects’ DNA, transforming them into martyrs and saints within a world parallel to our own. Startling beauty and marvelous ugliness are blended together within the digital era. Reality and fiction travel side-by-side, ultimately blossoming into a new collective imagination.

CATALOGUE: THISHUMANITY is accompanied by a catalogue published by Damiani Editore (Bologna). The catalogue includes all the artworks from the exhibition, backstage images from the set in Bali, and several texts about the project and Matteo Basilé’s opus.

GALLERIA PACK 

Foro Buonaparte 60

20121 MILAN, ITALY

www.galleriapack.com

11-23-10 / 01-29-11

Galerie Antonio Nardone, Bruxelles - Expo 250 et Jazz au programme

Exposition 250 - 3eme édition
Galerie Antonio Nardone, Bruxelles
Jusqu'au 24 décembre 2010

Galerie Antonio Nardone, Bruxelles

"Entrez, chinez, regardez, choisissez, emportez…"

La 3e édition de l’Expo 250 à la Galerie Antonio Nardone invite les bruxellois

à décourvrir les œuvres originales, pièces uniques ou multiples,

toutes à un prix maximum de 250 EUR, d’artistes contemporains. 

Laissez-vous porter par l’humeur ou le coup de cœur pour faire ou vous faire plaisir

et compléter ou, pourquoi pas, commencer, une collection d’œuvres d’art. 

Un événement spécial fête de fin d'année avec de nombreux artistes talentueux vous offrant un bon panorama diversifié d'art contemporain à un prix abordable. 

Voici la liste des artistes dont des oeuvres sont présentées :

Alvari
Badalyan Meri
Bernier Pascal
Boccar Jean-Louis
Boissacq Véronique
Bolenz Ulrike
Cécile B.2000
Chantelot Marie
Considérant Jérôme
Delville Mathieu
Delvoye Wim
Dierckx Laurent
Drutskoy Sasha
Dumont Paul
Filippini Alessandro
Gal Damien-Paul
Kever Nadia
Leemans Didier
le Hodey Patrice
Menin Isabelle
Moerman Jean-Luc
Mouffe Michel
Nosratabadi Dalia
Ravet Franca
Seguy Martine
Solheid Vincent
Sweetlove William
van Caloen Bénédicte
Van Roy Patrick
Wery Bern

Michel Mainil Quartet

Egalement à la Galerie Antonio Nardone, à écouter et à voir, un concert de jazz

Reflections in Blue

avec Michel Mainil au saxophone et 
Alain Rochette au piano

Le concert a lieu ce samedi 18 décembre, de 18 h à 19 h. Et si vous manquez le concert, retrouvez les mises à jour de leurs déplacements sur le blog de Michel Mainil :
http://www.myspace.com/michelmainilmusic

GALERIE ANTONIO NARDONE
34-36  rue Saint-Bernard
1060 BRUXELLES

www.galerieantonionardone.be

Heures d’ouverture :
Tous les jours de 11h à 18h
Le 24 décembre jusqu’à 17h

09-12 / 24-12-2010

Michelangello Pistoletto Installation Exhibition at CCCS, Palazzo Strozzi in Florence, Italy

Michelangelo Pistoletto

Metrocubo d'Infinito in un Cubo Specchiante 

Square Metre of Infinity in a Mirror Cube 

CCCS, Palazzo Strozzi, Florence, Italy

Through January 23, 2011

Michelangelo Pistoletto

MICHELANGELO PISTOLETTO, Grande cubo specchiante - Luogo di riflessione e meditazione, 2007. Photo: Enrico Amici. Courtesy Galleria Continua, San Gimignano / Beijing / Le Moulin.

The CCCS – Centro di Cultura Contemporanea STROZZINA, Palazzo Strozzi, Florence – has invited one of the most celebrated contemporary artists in Italy to present an installation which is on view in the courtyard of Palazzo Strozzi, a spectacular example of Renaissance architecture in Florence. Through 23 January 2011, visitors to Palazzo Strozzi encounters Metrocubo d'Infinito in un Cubo Specchiante – Square Metre of Infinity in a Mirror Cube, by MICHELANGELO PISTOLETTO. 

This installation is on view concurrently with the exhibition Portraits and Power: People, Politics and Structures in the CCCS and Bronzino, Artist and Poet at the Court of the Medici on Palazzo Strozzi’s piano nobile .

Metrocubo d'Infinito in un Cubo Specchiante (Square Metre of Infinity in a Mirror Cube), an installation covered externally with opaque steel plates and internally clad with mirrors, is intended to offer the public an opportunity to experience boundless space. Its centre is occupied by one of this Piedmontese artist's historic works, the Metrocubo di Infinito (Square Metre of Infinity), 1966, which consists of exceptionally opaque surfaces on the outside and reflecting surfaces on the inside, thus taking the potential of refraction to its extreme limit.

Mirrors are a crucial element in Pistoletto's art. They represent the physical and intellectual extension of the human mind, revealing that which is normally hidden from the human eye. Pistoletto himself argues that “the mirror expands the eye's characteristics and the mind's capabilities to the point where it offers a vision of totality”. He also says that “this space for concentration is designed to be one of art's places of prophecy, a territory where art succeeds in expressing its religious value”. The work of art becomes a secular place for meditation, where man with his capacity for imagination is the only true value.

Michelangelo Pistoletto

MICHELANGELO PISTOLETTO, Grande cubo specchiante - Luogo di riflessione e meditazione, 2007. Photo: Enrico Amici. Courtesy Galleria Continua, San Gimignano / Beijing / Le Moulin. 

MICHELANGELO PISTOLETTO BIOBRAPHY

Born in Biella in 1933, Pistoletto is one of Italy's most famous contemporary artists. He started to exhibit his works in 1955 and in 1960 he had his first solo show, at the Galleria Galatea in Turin. His early work experimented with the painting of self-portraits. In 1961-1962 he produced the Quadri specchianti (Reflecting Pictures) that include the presence of the spectator in the work itself, creating a new real-time dimension and challenging the idea of perspective. These works brought him international recognition and success, resulting in solo exhibitions in prestigious European and American galleries during the Sixties. The Quadri specchianti would become the basis for Pistoletto’s entire artistic production and theoretic reflection. 

From 1965 to 1966 Pistoletto produced a series of works entitled Oggetti in meno – Fewer Objects– which played a key role in launching Arte Povera. He began to take his art outside traditional exhibition venues in March 1967, leading to the first of the so-called “creative collaborations”. Pistoletto was to develop this approach during the following decades, always cooperating with several artists coming from different disciplines and social fields. In the Seventies he revived the mirror theme, developing it in such works and actions as his Divisione-Moltiplicazione dello Specchio – Division-Multiplication of the Mirror and L’Arte assume la Religione – Art Takes on Religion. In 1975 to 1976 he produced at the Galleria Stein, Turin, a work that stretched over time: Le Stanze – The Rooms –  was an exhibition lasting a year, divided into twelve sections of a month each. It was the first of a series of complex works intended to be shown for a full year, such as Anno Bianco – White Year, 1986, or Tartaruga Felice – Happy Turtle, 1992. In 1978 he had an exhibition at the Galleria Persano in Turin, where he showed two of the most important new directions of his artistic research and production: Divisione e moltiplicazione dello specchio – Division and Multiplication of the Mirror –  and L’arte assume la religione (Art Takes on Religion). At the beginning of the Eighties he created a series of sculptures in stiff polyurethane, which were translated into marble for the solo show at the Forte Belvedere, Florence, in 1984. From 1985 to 1989 he worked on his series of “dark” volumes, entitled Arte dello squallore – Art of Squalor. During the Nineties, through Progetto Arte (Art Project) and the creation of Cittadellarte-Fondazione Pistoletto, he created a straight and active link between different social fields aiming to achieve a responsible transformation of society. 

In 2003 he was awarded the Leone d’Oro, or Golden Lion award, for his career at the Venice Biennale. In 2004 the University of Turin awarded him an honoris causa degree in political sciences. On this occasion he unveiled the most recent phase of his work, which he called Terzo Paradiso – Third Paradise. In 2007 he was awarded the Wolf Foundation Prize in Arts at Jerusalem, “for his constantly inventive career as an artist, educator and activist, whose restless intelligence has created a prescient form of art that contributes to a new understanding of the world”. In 2008 Pistoletto – Cittadellarte received the Sasso Marconi city Special Award for his new use of languages. In 2009 he has shown at Galleria Continua, San Gimignano / Beijing / Le Moulin two installations dedicated to spirituality: Metrocubo d'Infinito in un Cubo Specchiante and Il Tempo del Giudizio. A retrospective of Michelangelo Pistoletto is on view at the Contemporary Art Museum, Philadelphia, since November 2010 through January 2011. He has been recently nominated Artistic Director for the Bordeaux Event in 2011. He has published the essay Il Terzo Paradiso (The Third Paradise), Edizioni Marsilio.

Michelangello Pistoletto

MICHELANGELO PISTOLETTO, Grande cubo specchiante - Luogo di riflessione e meditazione, 2007. Photo: Enrico Amici. Courtesy Galleria Continua, San Gimignano / Beijing / Le Moulin.

The event follows similar initiatives in 2008 and 2009, when Wang Yu Yang (Harbin, China, 1979) and Yves Netzhammer (Schaffhausen, Switzerland, 1970) produced site-specific installations for the courtyard of Palazzo Strozzi. The project, devised and produced by Fondazione Palazzo Strozzi – in cooperation with Cittadellarte-Fondazione Pistoletto and Galleria Continua, San Gimignano / Beijing / Le Moulin – marks the start of a new partnership with Castello di Ama per l’Arte Contemporanea in Gaiole in Chianti (Siena).

Lorenza Sebasti and Marco Pallanti, proprietors of the Castello di Ama wine company, decided to launch a project known as “Castello di Ama for Contemporary Art” in 2000. For this project, realized with the support of Galleria Continua, some of the leading artists on the international contemporary art scene have been invited to produce works of art designed to interact with the unique spirit of the small medieval village of Ama, nestling in the Siena hills. Over the years the Castello di Ama has hosted work by Michelangelo Pistoletto, Daniel Buren, Giulio Paolini, Kendell Geers, Anish Kapoor, Chen Zhen, Carlos Garaicoa, Nedko Solakov, Cristina Iglesias and Louise Bourgeois, offering personal reflections on this unique environment and producing permanent site-specific works now on display in the cellars and grounds of the company's two villas. (The works of art may be viewed by appointment only). 

CCCS, FLORENCE, ITALY

PALAZZO STROZZI 



www.strozzina.org
www.palazzostrozzi.org 

10-01-2010 / 01-23-2011

The American with George Clooney, the suspens thriller - Blu ray & DVD release

Academy Award winner George Clooney (Up in the Air, Burn After Reading) is The American in this suspense thriller from director Anton Corbijn (Control).  

Hailed as “riveting and irresistible” (Joe Neumaier, NY Daily News), this Focus Features film debuts on Blu-ray Hi-Def, DVD, Digital Download and On-Demand on December 28, 2010 from Universal Studios Home Entertainment.  

The American follows elusive assassin Jack’s (Clooney) treacherous journey as he completes his last assignment – but when he pursues a torrid relationship with a beautiful woman, Jack  soon finds himself in a battle to escape from his troubled past. Also starring Violante Placido (Soul Mate), Thekla Reuten (In Bruges), and Paolo Bonacelli (Midnight Express), The American is a mesmerizing film critics are calling “a labyrinth of seduction, secrets and suspense!” (Jake Hamilton, Fox-TV). 

  

THE AMERICAN 
CAST AND FILMMAKERS 

Cast: George Clooney, Violante Placido, Thekla Reuten, Paolo Bonacelli 

Directed by Anton Corbijn 

Screenplay by Rowan Joffe  

Based on the Novel A Very Private Gentleman by Martin Booth 

Produced by Anne Carey, Jill Green, Ann Wingate, Grant Heslov, George Clooney 

Executive Producer: Enzo Sisti 

Director of Photography: Martin Ruhe 

Production Designer: Mark Digby 

Editor:  Andrew Hulme 

Music by Herbert Grönemeyer 

Costume Designer: Suttirat Anne Larlarb  

Casting by Beatrice Kruger 

Languages/Subtitles:  English SDH, Spanish and French Subtitles 

Sound:  English Dolby Digital 5.1/DVS 2.0 DD, Spanish Dolby Digital 5.1, French Dolby Digital 5.1 

Running time: 1 Hour 45 Minutes 

BONUS FEATURES (BLU-RAY and DVD) 

•  Deleted scenes  

•  Journey to Redemption: The making of The American – An inside look at the making of The American.  

•  Feature commentary – With director Anton Corbijn 

Release Date: December 28, 2010 

You may also be interested by: 

Out of Sight with George Clooney and Jennifer Lopez - Blu ray release 

Devil, directed by John Erick Dowdle - Blu-ray and DVD release 

Andy Warhol: Motion Pictures at MoMA, Museum of Modern Art, NYC 

Stanley Kubrick Photographer, 1945-1950 

Curious George: A Bike Ride Adventure - George is back on a new DVD!

Curious George: A Bike Ride Adventure 
8  more shows from his Daytime Emmy-winner TV series 
DVD release date has been announced by Universal Studios Home Entertainment 

CURIOUS GEORGE 

A BIKE RIDE ADVENTURE 

CURIOUS GEORGE: A BIKE RIDE ADVENTURE
Cover of the New DVD, courtesy of Universal Studios

Get ready for adventure with everyone’s favorite little monkey—Curious George! George is back with a whole lot of exciting things to do and learn in 8 more shows from his Daytime Emmy-winning TV series. Join George as he goes on his first bike ride, chases rainbows, and meets canine royalty! Every day is a special day with Curious George: A Bike Ride Adventure!

DVD Release Date:  February 8, 2011 

Run Time: 1 Hour 48 Minutes 

Expo Giraud Siboni Paris Galerie Loevenbruck

Fabien Giraud et Raphaël Siboni 

Galerie Loevenbruck, Paris 

Jusqu'au 15 janvier 2011 


Message en français - Post in english below

Ross BERTEIG, Caryatide
Image sous licence Ceative Commons 2.0
via la Galerie Loevenbruck

Y. TENNEVIN, Barrage de Malpasse
Image sous licence Ceative Commons 2.0
via la Galerie Loevenbruck

« Nous n’avons pas grandi dans une époque mais dans une condition. Le temps était un processus. Les espaces étaient des dispositifs. La Condition est le nom par défaut de ce présent d’avant. Parfois il était 15h22 et le clapot contre le rivage faisait des formes blanches. L’eau, la roche et l’air se mêlaient dans une écume crémeuse et on se demandait si ce désordre était rejoué. L’effroi, on le plaçait autant dans l’éternelle redistribution de ce brouillon que dans la possible répétition de son dessin. La torpeur de cet après-midi là  se confondait souvent avec d’autres que nous n’avions pas vécus. Notre moment, c’était le récit d’une autre après-midi, l’image d’un autre soleil, l’emprise des sensations sur d’autres corps. Tout était recouvert. Chaque instant, chaque lieu se drapait dans un autre. Et une bombe explosait sur le quai du RER B. Et on découvrait la planète Pegasi B. Le monde n’avait plus lieu. Tout était fluide. »

FABIEN GIRAUD et RAPHAËL SIBONI

S’inscrivant dans la droite ligne de leurs questionnements sur la redéfinition de la notion même d’expérience artistique, interrogations débutées avec The Abduction (2008) à la biennale de Santa Fe, prolongée en 2009 avec Sans Titre (The Outland), à la Force de l’Art ou le feu d’artifice d’une seconde pour l’ouverture de la FIAC (Sans Titre, 2009), Fabien Giraud et Raphaël Siboni révèlent le flux de notre condition, et envisagent, pour le dépasser, la possibilité d’un Barrage.

Le travail de Fabien Giraud et Raphaël Siboni considère un monde mouvant, fluide, un paysage hydraulique où tout coule, ruisselle et fuit. Cet univers, c’est celui de la rivière et du fleuve. Cet écoulement, c’est celui de notre condition. Ce symptôme, c’est celui de notre temps. 

Le postulat de leur travail est donc ce paysage liquide aux variabilités infinies. L’œuvre n’est plus qu’une variable dans un système nommé, selon le cas, exposition, institution, situation. La singularité n’est plus qu’une  fonction parmi d’autres de cet ensemble dynamique. 

Pour l’exposition La Condition à la galerie Loevenbruck, les artistes extraient de ce tout à la liquéfaction, deux voitures, compressées, puis décompressées à la main, et présentent une vidéo, flux continu d’images dont la durée équivaut à celle d’une journée d’ouverture de la galerie. Ainsi, dans l’exposition, 15h22 ressemblera toujours à 15h22. 

Dans ce paysage symptomatique des années 90 et du paradigme de la relation comme forme, Fabien Giraud et Raphaël Siboni envisagent malgré tout la possibilité d’un événement : interrompre la condition. En arrachant, pour le temps de l’exposition, deux voitures de leur logique ternaire de création, destruction, récupération, ils suspendent le mouvement du flux et instaurent les conditions d’une apparition. A la fin du temps qui leur est imparti, les sculptures, qui pour un temps se sont dressées, retourneront dans le flux du monde. Leur disparition ne sera que dissolution. La galerie deviendra le refuge d’une perception dont l’objet à percevoir aura définitivement disparu.   

CLAIRE DELTHEIL 

Les oeuvres présentées lors de cette exposition ont été réalisées dans le cadre de la résidence des artistes au CENTQUATRE.

IN ENGLISH

_____________________

FABIEN GIRAUD & RAPHAËL SIBONI

THE CONDITION

LOEVENBRUCK GALLERY, PARIS - FRANCE

“We didn’t grow up in an era, but in a condition. Time was a process. Space was a device. The Condition was the name by default of this beforehand present. Sometimes it was 3:22 and the lapping against the shore made white forms. Water, rock and air mingled with creamy foam and we wondered if this disorder was a reenactment. We placed our dread as much in the eternal redistribution of this draft as in the possible repetition of its drawing. The lassitude of this afternoon then blurred with others that we had not lived. Our moment was a tale of another afternoon, the image of another sun, and the sway of sensations on another body. Everything was overgrown. Each instant, each place, was wrapped in another. And a bomb exploded on the RER B platform. And we discovered the planet Pegasi B. The world hadn’t happen yet. Everything was in flux.”

-- FABIEN GIRAUD and RAPHAËL SIBONI

The work of Fabien Giraud and Raphaël Siboni takes into account a shifting world, a hydraulic landscape that gushes, trickles, and seeps. This is a universe of rivers and floods. This overflow is our condition. This is a symptom of our time. 

The premise of their work is this liquid landscape with infinite variations. The work is only a variable in a given system, according to the circumstance, exhibition, institution, or situation. Singularity is only one component amongst others in this dynamic whole.

For the exhibition La Condition at galerie Loevenbruck, the artists have sifted two cars out of this world in liquefaction, which they have compacted and then, by hand, decompacted. The artists show a video of continually fluctuating images that plays as long as the gallery’s hours of operation. Therefore, in the exhibition, 3:22 pm will always look like 3:22 pm. 

In this landscape – symptomatic of the 1990s and the paradigm of the relation as form – Fabien Giraud and Raphaël Siboni contemplate interrupting this condition despite all the risks of this event. By uprooting two cars from their logical site of creation, destruction and recuperation, for the duration of the exhibition, the artists freeze this movement in flux and establish the conditions of an apparition. At the end of their allotted time, the sculptures that stood momentarily return to a the world in flux. Their disappearance will not be dissolution.  The gallery will serve as a refuge for a perception detached from its object.

In sync with their quest to redefine the very concept of artistic experience – an interrogation that began in The Abduction (2008) in the Santa Fe Biennial, and developed in 2009 in Sans Titre (The Outland), at the Force de l’Art and a second-long firework show at the opening of the FIAC (Sans Titre, 2009) – Fabien Giraud and Raphaël Siboni reveal the fluidity of our condition and conceptualize the possibility of a Barrage in order to move beyond it.

CLAIRE DELTHEIL 

Through January 15, 2011

These artworks were produced during the artist residency program at CENTQUATRE (Paris).

FABIEN GIRAUD & RAPHAËL SIBONI

LA CONDITION

GALERIE LOEVENBRUCK, PARIS

6, rue Jacques Callot

75006 Paris - France

www.loevenbruck.com

Horaires de la galerie / Opening hours : Mar - Sam, 11h-19h et sur rendez-vous / Tues-Sat, 11 a.m. - 7 p.m. and by appointment

10.12.2010 - 15.01.2011