L'AIR DU TEMPS

Summer came in September and October. People were smiling again, coffee lounges were full and their customers doing the French thing, watching the world go by. Despite this, I was off to the Beaubourg to see the Marcel Duchamp prize winner’s work and Robert Delaunay. As the weather was so good, I was hardly expecting crowds and yet crowds there were, to the extent that staff were making comments about it. For the M.D. exhibition which as it is an installation, there was only one gallery and no-one around.

This prize was created in 2000 by the ADIAF (Association for the International Dissemination of French Art - no wonder we call it the ADIAF!), which brings together 350 collectors and lovers of contemporary art. There is an International Jury which consists of experts in and outside of France in the contemporary art world: curators, critics, collectors…..I go and see each laureate’s work and usually come out rather baffled. What was it all about? 

Latin Echakhch (I don’t know how to pronounce it) is certainly minimal, and we are told, poetic. We are also informed that her work mingles with numerous references that are simultaneously intimate and political, literary and artistic, biographical and historical. Having said that, I really did not understand what it was all about.

Black clouds on one side and blue on the other.





As you move around the clouds, you discover different fragments, objects which I’m sure can lead to all meanings and interpretations. Upon entering the gallery you see everything at once. Hopefully as the clouds are black this means a temporary moment in our lives. When we come back on our steps, they are blue which makes for a brighter future? Obviously, the spectator can read what he wants to into the objects. Cases perhaps mean travel, bottles of perfume, dead flowers…..it makes the imagination work but not for very long as far as I’m concerned.












It’s odd that such installations are so personal and most of them, I find hard to relate to. Perhaps if the objects had been in color it may have been easier for me. As they were black it seemed as if she was relating to a past memory - which as you know, I find difficult to do.

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Michael Keane a dit…
I agree. The beauty of clouds is the intricate nuances of colour.
31/10/14 08:18
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