« Émoi & moi »

Collective Exhibition
From february 23th to may 19th 2013

Extension of the exhibition until may 19th.
In relation with the fifth hanging of the works in the permanent collection, titled ‘Vivement demain’ [’Waiting on Tomorrow’], which explores the myth of the visionary artist, ’Émoi & moi’ [’Emote To Me’] continues along the lines laid down by the group show ‘Situation(s) [48°47’34’’N/2°23’14’’E’] which articulated a meditation around a way of ‘being in the world’ that is resistant and active, oriented toward the Other.
‘Émoi & moi’ reverses the perspective and brings together works in which introspection is the driving force. The artists assembled here use metaphor to develop expressive strategies for dwelling in the world.

Presentation

With « Émoi & moi » the MAC/VAL has brought together works by fifteen artists for whom introspection is a creative force for its first temporary exhibition for 2013. These are artists who explore questions of existence and who hold distinct, critical perspectives of reality stemming from knowledge of oneself. Looking into the mirror and playing with the idea that art might be an expression of the interior landscape, this exhibition reflects upon what might be termed archaeology of the self. How can one give form to the impalpable, the irrational, the invisible, to emotions and to the passage of fleeting moments? If creating mental spaces is one of art’s roles, how does one represent them? This dilemma, perhaps an impossibility, is at the heart of the fertile dynamic of the works in this exhibition, allowing us to pose a number of essential questions: What is a Subject? How is it constructed? What is a work of art? How do artists play with the interface between the self and the exterior world?

In response to these questions, Frank Lamy has brought together a selection of unique works by artists of diverse backgrounds and generations.
Absalon’s Cellules pursue reflections upon the body’s insertion into a space situated somewhere between imprisonment and intimacy. His models play with the projective dimension of all art and function as « housing proposals » Pierre Burgalio has based his questions in the medium of painting as an autobiographical medium. In his Mémento caviardé, an entire year’s worth of activity serves as the starting point for an artistic creation. Pursuing his exploration of the representation and fabrication of imagery, Pascal Convert’s Chambre du sommeil formalizes his mental activity over the course of a single night in 1991. Through his drawings, Simon English creates a sort of mental atlas, in search of lost memories and fleeting moments ranging from Beatrix Potter to rock and roll culture. In Nocturnal, Alexandre Gérard, attempts to understand himself talking in his sleep. Pierre Joseph reconstructs reality and its representations using idiosyncratic means. Joris Lacoste explores hypnosis, and Laura Lamiel ceaselessly combines and juxtaposes her Figures in a veritable reimagining of mental spaces.
In his series « Sleeping city », Dominik Lang brings into question the very idea of inheritance – what are we to do with what our predecessors leave us?
Robert Malaval’s L’aliment Blanc acts as a metaphor of the dark and psychotic forces that spread across the world and destroy reality. Somewhere between autograph collections and castles in the sky, Annette Messager challenges the idea of the subject’s unity, affirming it as a social construction scattered between multiple incarnations.
Daniel Pommereulle’s Objets de prémonition propose a dark perspective of the future, situated somewhere between crualty and aggression. The Pyscho-objets of Jean-Pierre Raynaud are the fruit of personal and symbolic references that bring into play the tension of their emotive and obsessive charge. In all of her work, Tatiana Trouvé creates a metamorphosis of mental clockwork in an approach that is as much psychoanalytical as it is energetic. The series of « Self portraits » by Mark Wallinger affirm the existence of a Subject, one that is polymorphous and fragmented like the very material of art itself.

The starting point of this exhibition, Patrick Mario Bernard, Xavier Brillat and Pierre Trividic’s film Dancing – shown at the MAC/VAL on April 7, 2013 -, responds in part to the questions evoked, illuminating a reflection on art and more generally, on the place of the irrational in the mental landscape of individuals and their daily lives.

A word from the Exhibition Curator

In relation with the fifth hanging of the works in the permanent collection, titled ‘Vivement demain’ [’Waiting on Tomorrow’], which explores the myth of the visionary artist, ‘Émoi & moi’ [Emote To Me] continues along the lines laid down by the group show ‘Situation(s) [48°47’34’’N/2°23’14’’E]’, which articulated a meditation around a way of ‘being in the world’ that is resistant and active, oriented toward the Other.
‘Émoi & moi’ reverses the perspective and brings together works in which introspection is the driving force. The artists assembled here use metaphor to develop expressive strategies for dwelling in the world.
Absalon’s Cells unfold a meditation around the inscription of a generic body in a space, a bachelor living space, somewhere between confinement and protection, withdrawal into the self (capsule-like, monastic, carceral, foetal). The models presented here play fully on the projective dimension of any artwork and function as ‘propositions for dwellings.’
Pierre Buraglio grounds his probing of the resources of painting in an autobiographical approach, imbued with memories. In Mémento caviardé, the starting point for the visual composition is the activity of a whole year. Twelve months of one man’s life are both exhibited and hidden in one and the same movement.
In Chambre de sommeil Pascal Convert continues his probing of representation and the production of images and offers a formalisation a putting in place – of his cerebral and physiological activity over one night in 1991, a graphic inventory of an unknown space, an unthinkable interior.
In his drawings Simon English puts down a kind of mental map, in search of lost memories and fleeting moments. Fantasies, irritations, joys, Freudian slips, botches, associations and obsessions combine ad infinitum in a shifting territory, a shadow theatre where nothing is certain.
In Nocturnal Alexandre Gérard seeks out the fault lines in the real and tries to understand his somniloquy. Recordings and transcriptions/translations are the tools of this ‘idiotic’ and analytic enterprise in unveiling.
Pierre Joseph de/re-constructs the real and its representations based on diosyncratic practices. He throws into crisis the validity of the systems and tools used for imposing form on the world.
With Joris Lacoste it is all a matter of hypnosis and performativity.
His prepared dreams rest forever in the memory of their owners.
For her part, Laura Lamiel repeatedly combines and orders her Figures, a veritable putting into play/reflective play on (exhibition of) mental spaces in which a whole poetical materiology that is singular and mysterious is developed.
In The Lovers, Dominik Lang continues his questioning of the idea of heritage, in an inter-generational dialogue that is both personal and artistic.
Robert Malaval’s Aliment Blanc acts as a metaphor for the dark, obsessive and neurotic forces that cover the world and cause the real to implode, between teeming and invasion.
With her collection of signatures and castles in the air, Annette Messager throws into crisis the uniqueness of the subject and shows it to be a social construct torn between different agencies.
Daniel Pommereulle’s Objets de prémonition oscillate between seduction and aggression, casting an acerbic, incisive gaze on artistic activity.
The Psycho-objets by Jean-Pierre Raynaud draw on personal and symbolic references which create a tension around their emotional and obsessional impact, their personal, psychic potential.
In all her works Tatiana Trouvé creates metaphors for cerebral mechanics in an approach that is at once psychoanalytic and energeticist, circulating in rhizomatic reconfigurations of space.
Mark Wallinger’s series of Self Portraits affirms the existence of the Subject, of a polymorphous and divided ‘I’, as the very material of art, thereby questioning 2013 performativity and utterance. Who is it that says I?

The starting point of the exhibition, the film Dancing by Patrick Mario Bernard, Xavier Brillat and Pierre Tridivic (shown on 7 April), articulates a meditation around the work of art, gauged by the irrational. Reality and fiction intertwine in this fantastic film built around the figure of the double.

Playing with and undercutting the idea that art is the expression of interiority, questioning the very idea of that interiority, this exhibition constructs a reflection on what could be called an ‘archaeology’ of the ‘I.’ How do you give shape to the impalpable, to the irrational, to the invisible, to the emotions, to the fleetingness of past moments? If elaborating mental spaces is one of the tasks of art, then how should they be represented? This difficulty, or even impossibility, is present as a productive dynamics in the works brought together here, allowing us to ask these essential questions: What is a Subject? How is it constructed? What work does art do? How do artists play on the interface between the self and the world?

Frank Lamy

Artists

—  Absalon Eshel Meir, known as Absalon
(born in 1964, died in Paris in 1993)
—  Pierre Buraglio
(born in 1939, lives and works in Maisons-Alfort)
—  Pascal Convert
(born in 1957, lives and works in Biarritz)
—  Simon English
(born in1959, lives and works in London)
—  Alexandre Gérard
(born in 1975, lives and works in Marseille)
—  Pierre Joseph
(born in 1965, lives and works in Paris)
—  Joris Lacoste
(born in 1973, lives and works in Paris)
—  Laura Lamiel
(born in 1948, lives and works in Paris)
—  Dominik Lang
(born in 1980, lives and works in Prague)
—  Robert Malaval
(born in 1937, died in Paris in 1980)
—  Annette Messager
(born in 1943, lives and works in Malakoff)
—  Daniel Pommereulle
(born in 1937, died in Paris in 2003)
—  Jean-Pierre Raynaud
(born in 1939, lives and works in La Garenne-Colombes)
—  Tatiana Trouvé
(born in 1968, lives and works in Paris)
—  Mark Wallinger
(born in 1959, lives and works in London)

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