AM I A MASOCHIST ?
Well perhaps you think I am? She went to see another lot of installations when really she is not impressed by them?
It’s not the installation that entices me to visit the Musée de la monnaie, it’s the space itself. Much more adapted to installations than to traditional exhibitions. Remember Maurizio Catalan? That was the last time I had been. The advertising for the exhibition was boiled down to a few posters but nothing clearly on the museum outside wall, which is usually the case. This is all I had seen...
As it was meant to be an exhibit of the works of Man Ray, Duchamp, Klein and the likes. So you can see why I went along. Once I was inside the museum, there was the word "shock" written all over my face. I know artist have their off days, but frankly this is not art. A new word must be created for such exhibitions which are not perennial at all.
Once inside, I read this….
Floor-naments” explores this “flattening” of one of the trade’s essential technique: instead of placing works on plinths, instead of a quest for monumentality or a choice of conventional subjects, Modern and Contemporary sculpture lies directly on the floor.
I didn't make much of that. There were a few photos on the wall but mostly the art was on the floor.
In I went to the first gallery. However, I crossed a small entrance hall before arriving. There were beautiful images in a video on the floor…but where was the explanation? I came upon this on the wall…Tomb » #5. But where was the name of the artist? This is not starting well.
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| Tomb » #5 - 1977 |
Now into the next gallery. A space I really find marvellous. What I saw was a little more reassuring than the Pope we saw in the space in the previous exhibition. The space is called Allegory and the artist is James Lee Byars. He maybe (as I am told) an unclassifiable American artist but the text on this installation is impossible One thing that I did read was that the installation is made up of 1,000 glass balls and this is what the artist said
« a sphere questions everything, it criticises everything, is everything and red represent immortality »
Are you any wiser? At this point the supervisor came over and asked me what I thought….
« Well, it’s little more optimist that the opening scene in the Maurizio Catalan exhibition … but I don’t fully apprehend the descriptive text ».
He walked away leaving me to work it out for myself.
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| James Lee Byars- 1932-1977 Red Angels of Marseille -1996 |
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Onwards.
In 1917, Marcel Duchamp attached a coat-rack to the floor that should normally have hung on the wall:
Before Duchamp took ready made objects to « describe » art, I quite liked his abstracts …but this?
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| Trap - 1917-64 |
These were the other « objects » and I didn't take photos of cement slabs…this was getting too much.
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| Sophie Ristlhueber (1949-) Fact : 199 |
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| RP3, Here lies space - 1966 |
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| Dust Breeding around 1920 |
I quite liked « Dust Breeding » (artist?)
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| Giacometti - 1932-40 |
« Woman with her throat cut »
It was a video plus photos in the next room. The artist was unfolding herself on the ground in a series of movements. Apparently she does this for real - just a few words then.
« The name MesuRages insists on the word Rage. It is the rage of an artist who refuses to play the role she feels is being imposed on her"There is more but I won’t go on. I think her name is ORLAN and this is the dress she wears (and washes after each presentation in front of spectators)…I more or less agree with her text - but - art?
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| ORLAN - MesuRages - 1977 - The Dress |
It can’t be true? This is Tony Cragg ( 1949-)and usually I like his work immensely. Here has collected found objects and arranges them in geometric patterns…another text on the wall which I could not make head or tail of. Perhaps it’s related to society which collects and then throws away when another model comes out? That’s what I deduced.
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| Tony Cragg - Sampling |
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And another Cragg. « Opening Spiral » 1982 …
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| « Opening Spiral » 1982 … |
A series of works which really puzzled me….
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| ??? |
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| Toni Grand (1936-2005) |
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| Driftwood and Laminated Ployster and Graphite - 1977 |
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| Ulrich Rûckriem - Dolomit : 1976 |
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Then I make my biggest mistake ever. I walk into the next gallery and without seeing it, straight onto the work of art. Boy on boy, I was grabbed, yelled at and why hadn’t I seen..this is what I destroyed in seconds and what was put back into place in minutes…
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| Carl Andre but I am not sure |
« An object does not exist alone in the world, things only are because they enter into a relation to what surrounds them ». So if I have got it right, the hammer shape is multiplied by the placement of the nails
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| Jean Jacques Vilmouth - Down to Earth |
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| Parmiggiani : Pittura pure, pure luce |
Into the final gallery and this time we are asked to walk over the floor installation. It took me a little time to focus on the text which were written all over the floor. Jochen Gerz (1940-) It’s called Vivre (To live) and done in 1974.
« Taking into account the passage of time, this hymn to life is built on a total lack of permanence »
Quite likely as our feet must rub out the chalk words pretty fast.
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| Jochen Gerz |
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| Vivre |
I came out - but nearly missed the last creation. Falls. Another French artist, Michel Blazy. He’s known for the use of perishable materials.
« Fall interests me in everything it can bring about by way of transformation » !!!
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| Michel Blazy - Falls |
Here he uses hundreds of toilet rolls transforming them into a sculpture material worthy of entering into the most important museum collections (sic). Yes, it’s pretty but no, it is not a work of art - definitely not for me.
If you didn’t have a museum pass, the exhibition entry costs 10€. Maybe there is a better way of using that money.
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