The contemporary art gallery is close to the Art Centre through the
network of artists it mobilizes, yet far from it because, in principle, it isn’t
subsidized. Contemporary art galleries have recently appeared in certain areas of large
cities.
In Paris, for example, the rue Louise-Weiss has six of them, whose activities are
interwoven and complementary to one another to such a point that they have been invited by
the Meymac Contemporary Art Centre (7th March to 20th June 1999) to exhibit together
a significant selection of the artists they represent. According to the text on the back
of a postcard distributed for this occasion, this project «gives the Art Centre the
chance to underscore the commitment of these gallery owners, and more generally to recall
their role as a driving force behind the development of the artistic scene. With this
invitation, the Contemporary Art Centre also welcomes the emergence of a new cultural
neighbourhood in Paris. The cohesion and the innovative way of working which these
galleries, grouped together under the name of the "Scène-Est" have developed,
are significant for a new concept of spreading art in society.»
|
|
Yves
Netzhammer. 1997-1999. Extraits de: Wenn man etwas gegen seine Eigenschaften
benützt muss man dafür einen anderen Namen finden. VHS. 60 min. Prêt Yves
Netzhammer, Zurich.
Yves Netzhammer est né en 1970. Etudes d’architecture à Schaffouse (1987-1990).
Hochschule für Gestaltung und Kunst (1991-1995). Plusieurs expositions depuis 1996 au
Museum zu Allerheiligen de Schaffouse, dans divers Centres d’art et dans des
galeries.
Mariko Mori.
«When we were first…». Photo sous plexi, flacon de parfum sous plexi sur socle,
avec lumière. 60,2 x 47,2 cm ; 19,3 x 19,3 x 19,3 cm; 141 x 28 x 28 cm (avec socle).
Collection A. L’H., Genève.
Artiste japonaise née en 1967, Mariko Mori habite actuellement à New York. Elle connaît
un succès grandissant depuis 1995, date à laquelle elle réalise Birth of a star.
Ses photos sont entièrement digitales et accompagnées d’un effet 3D. Elle se met en
scène dans l’image, adoptant un rôle stéréotypé de la féminité en général,
et tout particulièrement de la féminité japonaise. Son succès est retentissant en
Europe et aux Etats-Unis. Elle a reçu une mention à la Biennale de Venise de 1997 pour
une installation vidéo en 3D.
«Her work is not simply about fantasy per se, about identity discriminated by type
(gender, race) but a realistic assessment of the gaps which have opened up between the
individual and the totality of world life today. It acknowledges the fact that life and
the world will for now on ever remain incommensurate, and that in mass life in a
completely "westernized" planet (but isn’t even that word sounding
old-fashioned now ?) we are all aliens to each other, and all must now construct
fetish-zones for ourselves, our own virtual-reality capsules in wich to breathe, dream and
live.»
Robert
Mahoney, www.artnet.com/magazine/features/mahoney
|
During a public debate in the Spring of 1997, the artist Jochen Getz put forward
this double ambiguity: chronological order or aesthetic category, acceptance or rejection.
«Contemporary Art is the art of today. And I really mean today.» His
insistence on the last word raised the question of the two temporalities at stake in the
expression «Contemporary Art», factual temporality based on chronological order, or
normative temporality based on aesthetics. The former suggests a wide and eclectic
definition including everything produced in the world of art at a certain period of time.
The latter implies a choice, a selection depending on congruency with the present,
which implicitly gives major importance to a break with the past, thus creating a new
aesthetic concept, a new definition of what the norm in art is.
[…] Implicitly, it is really an aesthetic category similar to what was called a
«genre» in the time of figurative painting, genre being given the same status as the one
formerly attributed to historical painting. Like the latter, the genre Contemporary Art
only presents part of the artistic production. It is more upheld by public institutions
than by the private market and stands at the top of the hierarchy as far as prestige and
price are concerned, maintaining close links with intellectual culture and the written
word.
Nathalie
Heinich. 1998. Le triple jeu de l’art contemporain. Paris: Minuit, p. 11.
> Cocardes de concours hippiques. Prêt Valérie
Soguel-Auger.
|
