calendario eventi  :: 

X

18/6/2010

Casanova forever

Frac Languedoc-Roussillon, Montpellier

Aigues-Mortes, Alès, Bagnols-les-Bains, Cases-de-Pène, Lattes, Lunel, Montpellier, Mende, Montolieu, Narbonne, Nîmes, Salses-le-Château, Sérignan, Sète, Sigean, Pont-du-Gard

A brainchild of the Région Languedoc-Roussillon, taking as its general theme the life and work of Casanova. Organized by the Région Languedoc-Roussillon, guided by Regional Contemporary Art Collection [FRAC] which has devised this festival in partnership with many public and private institutions dedicated or not to contemporary art, Casanova forever takes the form of some 33 shows and exhibitions, enriched by meetings, readings and screenings. After the brisk success of Chauffe, Marcel! in 2006 and La dégelée Rabelais, which, in 2008, attracted more than 550 000 visitors, the Region Languedoc-Roussillon is this year dedicating its contemporary art festival to Giacomo Casanova. This project brings together a number of public and private cultural institutions, galleries, collectors and artists.

Artists
Laurette Atrux-Tallau, Jean-Luc Brisson and his guests (Anne-Sophie Perrot-Nani, Caroline Lucotte, Claire Guezengar, Hélène Despagne, Marie Denis, Vincent Le Texier and Donatienne Michel-Dansac), Victor Burgin, Jacques Charlier, Cyril Chartier-Poyet, Nina Childress, Nicolas Daubanes, Simone Decker, DN (Laetitia Delafontaine and Grégory Niel), Aude Du Pasquier Grall, Emmanuelle Etienne, Geneviève Favre Petroff, Tom Friedman, Dominique Gauthier, Paul-Armand Gette, Delphine Gigoux-Martin, Grout/Mazéas, Marie-Ange Guilleminot, Cécile Hesse and Gaël Romier, Eugène van Lamsweerde, Inez van Lamsweerde/Vinoodh Matadin, Natacha Lesueur, Claude Lévêque, Frédérique Loutz, Anna Malagrida, Stephen Marsden, Audrey Martin, Maurin and La Spesa, Piet Moget, Jacques Monory, Didier Morin, Vincent Olinet, Laurina Paperina, Alicia Paz, Guillaume Poulain, Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Vladimir Skoda, Didier Trenet, David Wolle, Karim Zeriahen

Group shows
Rüdiger Schöttle and the Jardin-Théâtre Bestiarium (works from the Centre national des arts plastiques [CNAC]) at the Pont du Gard, Ecce Homo Ludens, an exhibition about games in contemporary art at the Musée Régional d‘Art Contemporain Languedoc-Roussillon in Sérignan, and L’Amour à la machine (l’esca amorosa...), an exhibition of the works of the FRAC Languedoc-Roussillon at Nîmes.

Some thirty exhibitions being held throughout the region Aude (11): Narbonne (Chapelle des Pénitents bleus, Musée d‘art et d‘histoire, Musée d‘archéologie), Montolieu (La Coopérative), Sigean (LAC) / Gard (30) : Nîmes (Carré d‘Art, École supérieure des beaux-arts de Nîmes, Chapelle des Jésuites, Musée archéologique, Muséum d‘histoire naturelle, Galerie 4, Barbier, galerie ESCA/PPCM), Alès (Musée PAB), Aigues-Mortes (Tours et remparts - CMN), Vers-Pont-du-Gard (Site du Pont du Gard) / Hérault (34) : Montpellier (Fonds régional d‘art contemporain LR, École supérieure des beaux-arts de Montpellier Agglomération, Carré Sainte Anne, Galeries AL/MA, Aperto, ChantiersBoîteNoire, Iconoscope, Vasistas, et en extérieur Promenade du Peyrou, Esplanade Charles de Gaulle, Parc zoologique du Lunaret), Lattes (Musée archéologique Lattara de Montpellier-Agglomération), Lunel (Espace Louis-Feuillade), Sérignan (Musée Régional d‘Art Contemporain LR), Sète (Centre Régional d‘Art Contemporain LR) / Lozère (48) : Bagnols-les-Bains (Le Vallon du Villaret), Mende (Maison consulaire) / Pyrénées-Orientales (66) : Cases-de- Pène (Château de Jau), Salses-le-Château (Forteresse de Salses - CMN).

The Exhibition catalogue (to be published on 18 June 2010) is being published as a joint production with Éditions Dilecta (Paris) and distributed by Les Belles Lettres Diffusion-Distribution. Produced under the editorship of Jean-Claude Hauc and Emmanuel Latreille, with essays by renowned Casanova specialists such as Lydia Flem, Alexandre Stroev, and Helmut Watzlawick, it will shed particular light on the writer and adventurer, and make links with contemporary artists, with contributions from Jean-Christophe Bailly, Jean-Luc Brisson, Sandra Caltagirone, Timothée Chaillou, Manuel Fadat, Maria Fusco, Cyril Jarton, Vincent Labaume, Patrice Maniglier, Pierre Manuel, Michel Poivert, Corinne Rondeau, Rüdiger Schöttle... (graphic design: Fanette Mellier, Paris).

Parallel shows
Casanova parmi nous, at the Médiathèque centrale Émile Zola in Montpellier, a presentation of pages and folios from Casanova’s manuscript of Histoire de ma vie, recently acquired by the Bibliothèque nationale de France. Programme of lectures, film screenings, readings and critical debates, and concerts associated with the following festivals: Radio France Montpellier Languedoc-Roussillon, Pablo Casals at Prades, and theWorldWide Festival at Sète... (Complete programme on line on the FRAC website http://www.fraclr.org)

This event, brainchild of the Région Languedoc-Roussillon enjoys the support of the Ministère de la Culture, the Conseils Généraux of the Aude, the Gard and Lozère, the Communauté d‘Agglomération de Montpellier, the Cities of Montpellier, Lunel, Nîmes, Alès, Narbonne, and Salses, and would be unthinkable without the participation of all the other cultural partners and the backing of patrons.

This project for staging contemporary art exhibitions centred on Casanova derives less from an idea of illustrating the themes that characterised his life (sex, gambling, money, travel, magic, etc.) than from a desire to use contemporary artistic creativity as a way of exploring some "singular" paths, with the same childlike liberty and innocence in game-playing that creates surprise, astonishment and pleasure. Casanova was an eminently individualistic figure, and the idea is to recruit artists who have his liberty of curiosity, and who know how to construct locations that will generate astonishment. Of course the bodily dimension and sexual pleasure are not to be overlooked, but they are to be treated as something wholly different, with immense simplicity and a complete rejection of transgression, provocation and, above all, vulgarity.

It must not be forgotten that Casanova was an aesthete who loved great works, whether in music, poetry or the theatre. To pay him a fitting tribute will require artists of acute sensitivity and quality.

The urban space should also play host to astonishing productions, given that Casanova was a traveller – a man for company and society.

Finally, something that should not be neglected is the presence of female artists in at least half of the exhibitions. The reason for this is not so much the modern issue of parity as a postulated equivalence of liberty between men in the 18th century and women at the start of the 21st. Whereas men in the 18th century held the initiative in game-playing, women are excellent initiators in the contemporary social game; which may well contribute to people's sense of "wellbeing" in general. And this should be amply demonstrated by Casanova, strong and lusty!

Informations:
Fonds régional d’art contemporain Languedoc-Roussillon
4 rue Rambaud - 34000 Montpellier +33 (0)4 99 74 20 35 / fraclr@fraclr.org

Press contacts:

Regional Press
Région Languedoc-Roussillon
Sabrina Dridi +33 (0)4 67228646 / 06 07755282 / dridi.sabrina@cr-languedocroussillon.fr

National and International Press
Heymann, Renoult Associees
Agnès Renoult and Annabelle Floriant 29 rue Jean-Jacques Rousseau - 75001 Paris +33 (0)1 44617676 / a.floriant@heymann-renoult.com

General opening Saturday 19 June at 7 pm

Musée Régional d‘Art Contemporain Languedoc-Roussillon
Sérignan (Hérault)

stampa

permanent link