Under Influences
dal 13/2/2013 al 18/5/2013
Segnalato da
13/2/2013
Under Influences
La Maison Rouge, Paris
A body of artworks, documents and films addressing the relationship between the visual arts and psychotropics. Since the dawn of time, or rather of humanity, our fellow men have crossed the path of psychoactive substances, plants, mushrooms and various concoctions. These encounters have led to stupefaction, intoxication, dependence, mystical insights, relief, death, even epiphany. In the patio Vincent Mauger's sculptures do not just stand on a site, they bring pressure into it.
Under influences
visual arts and psychotropics
curator: Antoine Perpère
La maison rouge presents, from February 15th to May 19th 2013, Under Influences, a major exhibition
which addresses the relationship between artists and psychotropics.
Since the dawn of time, or rather of humanity, our fellow men have crossed the path of psychoactive
substances, plants, mushrooms and various concoctions. These encounters have led to stupefaction,
intoxication, dependence, mystical insights, relief, death, even epiphany.
Artists, who are constantly in search of doors to creation, passageways, catalysts, transgressions,
stimuli and ways to penetrate figments of the mind, were all but compelled to try out their effects.
Leaving moral judgement, socio-judicial standpoints, psychological interpretations and preconceived
aesthetic choices aside, the exhibition proposes (necessarily non-exhaustive) examples of the
interrelations between creative processes and the use of psychodynamic substances.
The most readily accessible illustration is the visual representation of substances or their use. Such
images are heavily dependent on prevailing morals, and the balance of power between transgressive
experiences and legislation. Consequently, the works can be viewed on a range of levels, from historic
document to art. Included are psychedelic posters for American concerts, advertisements, and a
selection of books and other publications on the theme.
A second aspect will include works which, intentionally or unintentionally, have a near-psychotropic
effect on the viewer (installations, environments, psycho-sensorial devices).
The third corpus, and the core of the subject, comprises works produced deliberately under or
concomitant to the use of psychoactive substances: drug-users producing visual art or artists
experimenting with thought modifiers for creative purposes.
Films and videos are an important part of the exhibition as, by accounting for time in plastic expression,
they make possible original attempts to transcribe and document altered thoughts and perceptions.
Certain artists have used psychotropic substances old and new to tripwire creativity and chart journeys
into "madness" which in certain cases have proved uncontrollable or a source of suffering. Translating
these experiences into the aesthetic realm, as presented here, will enable each individual to realise the
constant complexity of their effects.
Antoine Perpère
An illustrated catalogue will be published by Éditions Fage, with texts by Sophie
Delpeux, Miguel Egaña, Alain Jouffroy, Jean-Jacques Lebel, Claude Olievenstein,
Antoine Perpère and Frédéric Valabrègues.
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Vincent Mauger
Système adéquat
In the patio
proposed by les amis de la maison rouge
Vincent Mauger’s sculptures do not just stand on a site, they bring pressure into it. The relationship to the site is an intrinsic part of the artist’s work, he questions the space in order to reveal its breaking and equilibrium points. From the adequacy between the occupied space and the shown volume, resonances rise towards the spectators’ sensitivity. The spectator is caught by the play of the surfaces, the hollow and the solid, he experiences a stimulated landscape which scale oscillates between the infinitesimal and the colossal.
Using 3D modeling, Vincent Mauger creates a world that is firmly grounded in the tangible matter. Wood, concrete blocks, bricks, metal or polystyrene, these materials are worked beyond what we could assume from their materiality. With rigorous production and little process, the perception of mass and solidity is often changed and always questioned.
In a world where distance is abolished by the speed of travel (real or virtual), Vincent Mauger offers a space with an extraordinary topography, where it feels good to get lost.
Claire Taillandier translated by Samy Da Silva
Image: Lucien Clergue Le poète exhale. Carrières des Baux-de-Provence, 1959, courtesy Galerie Bert, Paris
Press relations:
Claudine Colin Communication
Julie Martinez t: +33 (0)1 42726001 f: +3 3 (0)1 42725023 julie@claudinecolin.com
Press preview Thursday February 14th 9.30am to 11am
preview Thursday February 14th 6pm to 9pm
La Maison Rouge
10 Bd de La Bastille 75012 Paris, France
Hours:
open Wednesday to Sunday 11am to 7pm late nights Thursday until 9pm
closed May 1st.
Admission
Full price: 8 euros 18
Concessions: 5.5 euros (13-18 ans, students, maison des artistes, more than 65 ans)
Free: children under 13, jobseekers, companions of disabled visitors