Francis Alys
Christophe Berdaguer
Marie Pejus
Sam Durant
Jimmie Durham
Melik Ohanian
Henrik Olesen
Elena Panayotova
Dan Perjovschi
Adrian Piper
Constanze Ruhm
Anri Sala
(Community). A situation of multiplex 'project rooms'. Recently acquired works from the FRAC Rhone-Alpes encounter projects by invited guest- artists in a situation of multiplex 'project rooms'. Communaute 2 does not conform to a traditional exhibition scheme, with a determinate thematic line. Rather, it has been conceived of as a treatment of the aesthetic languages used by artists to describe what it is that makes up a community, with its functions, its exchanges, its rules, its behaviours, its memories... Artists: Francis Alys, Christophe Berdaguer & Marie Pejus, Sam Durant, Jimmie Durham, Melik Ohanian, Henrik Olesen, Elena Panayotova, Dan Perjovschi, Adrian Piper, Constanze Ruhm, Anri Sala
(Community). A situation of multiplex 'project rooms'
From 7 May to 26 September 2004, the Institut d'Art Contemporain (IAC)
in Villeurbanne-Lyon is putting on the exhibition Communaute.
2nd Part:, Communaute 2, 9 July - 26 September 2004, presenting Francis
Alys, Christophe Berdaguer & Marie Pejus, Sam Durant, Jimmie Durham,
Melik Ohanian, Henrik Olesen, Elena Panayotova, Dan Perjovschi, Adrian
Piper, Constanze Ruhm, Anri Sala.
Recently acquired works from the FRAC Rhone-Alpes encounter projects by
invited guest- artists in a situation of multiplex ''project rooms''.
Communaute does not conform to a traditional exhibition scheme, with a
determinate thematic line. Rather, it has been conceived of as a
treatment of the aesthetic languages used by artists to describe what it
is that makes up a community, with its functions, its exchanges, its
rules, its behaviours, its memories...
The works in Communaute do not take up micro-political positions or
fragmented identitarisms produced by the effects of ''globalisation'',
nor does not comment on the swelling tide of communitarianism; nor does
it select artists in terms of, national or ethnic origin. It foregrounds
the work of artists who, outside of any ideologically-imposed
globalising context, give an account of the transformations that have
taken place in the social and cultural landscape. Through well-chosen
spatialisations, procedures and symbolic language, these artists shed
light on the way in which a ''community'' comes into being. They have
their roots in specific cultures or countries, but they look at several
communities simultaneously, working regularly in different geographical
territories, confronted continuously with other types of perception.
Thus a cosmopolitan community becomes established, a community of
heterogeneity instead of sameness, - a community of the visual arts that
are involved in the transformations that are taking place in society.
Communaute is intended to focus on situations into which people project
themselves, and in which interactions between the individual and a group
take place. The various works put the emphasis on processes for the
regulation of social spaces. The exhibition is structured round
contacts, cross-cutting games and the clarification of situations of
tension between individuality and collectivity. It is an encounter
between ''persons'', who are not charted by a typological ''sameness''
brought about by history and tradition. A number of works elucidate
situations which relate to the transitions of the individual to the
plural : to mention, the obsessive fantasies of two hyper-individualists
in Anri Sala's Nocturnes; or Jimmie Durham's sculpture, to celebrate
individual sovereignty; or again Tino Sehgal's dialogue on exchange and
economy. Melik Ohanian's masterly White Wall Travelling restitutes the
voice of the dockers of Liverpool, while Christophe Berdaguer and Marie
Pejus litteraly create the magnetism for group dynamics, and Constanze
Ruhm presents her film Re(hers)al, which is built around an play by a
group of female characters. ''Geographics'', taken as a mental
territory, are at work, both in the protocols of Francis Alys's
psycho-geographical performances, in Sam Durant's project for a public
counter-cultural monument, and in Elena Panayotova's decomposition of
Balkan borders, not forgetting Henrik Olesen's deconstructive work in
stigmatising the mental landscape of conventional sexual morality firmly
bound to frozen schemata.
In this second part, a work by Adrian Piper, along with a project by Dan
Perjovschi, will complete the new proposals who replace the works of the
FRAC Rhone-alpes collection.
A special issue of the art magazine 'Semaine' will be include documents
on the artists and a curatorial text by Dirk Snauwaert.
The Institut d'Art Contemporain receives support from:
The Ministry of Culture
The Rhone-Alpes Region
The Municipality of Villeurbanne
In the image a Elena Panayotova work.
Opening Hours:
Wednesdays, Fridays, Saturdays, Sundays: 1:00 - 6:00 pm
(1 June - 30 September: 1:00 - 7:00 pm)
Thursdays: 1:00 - 8:00 pm
Institut d'Art Contemporain (IAC)
Villeurbanne-Lyon
11 rue Docteur Dolard, F-69100 Villeurbanne, France