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13/10/2014

Decomposed Garden

Gagosian Gallery two, Paris

By nature the Third Landscape constitutes a territory for the multitude of species not finding place elsewhere.
—Gilles Clément

Chris Burden
Jeff Koons
Maurizio Cattelan
Giuseppe Penone
Dan Colen
Richard Prince
Michael Craig-Martin
Robert Therrien
Urs Fischer
Franz West
Carsten Höller
Zeng Fanzhi

Comprising more than twenty monumental sculptures and paintings, "Le Jardin Décomposé" evokes an overlapping of city and nature, a place akin to botanist and writer Gilles Clément's characterization of the Third Landscape as "the space left over by man to landscape evolution—to nature alone." Clément places swamps, roadsides, railroad embankments and other peripheral spaces within a category of "genetic reservoirs" where unattended plant life mixes with the urban environment and its detritus, sometimes to extraordinary effect. Works such as Richard Prince's Untitled (tire planter) (2007), a bright orange, tire-shaped vessel containing a tuft of weeds, and Carsten Höller's Giant Triple Mushroom (2014), a mixed-media fungal hybrid created for this exhibition, allude to the gradual commingling that might take place in such forgotten terrain. Tenuously merging human and natural imagery in Waterfall Dots (Tree Rocks) (2008), Jeff Koons employs an oscillating visual field and anatomical overdrawing, revisiting Marcel Duchamp's Étant donnés, where idyllic landscape is the backdrop for a disturbing naked female body. In Holmby Hills Light Folly (2012), Chris Burden designates an incongruous yet inviting park square with cast iron benches and lampposts.

In the Third Landscape, nature that has been displaced by industrial development adapts in improbable ways; replication and exaggeration of growth patterns lead to radiant dimensions. Giuseppe Penone's Scrigno (Casket) (2007) is a patchwork mural of overlapping sections of weathered brown leather; moving around a living tree, he hammered the leather against it to impress the bark's natural pattern and texture into the yielding membrane. Across the center of this vast work, which measures approximately fifteen meters wide, lies a small tree cast in bronze, split open to reveal its rich resin interior. Franz West' s bright blue aluminum Garden Pouf (2010) is a tree-like abstraction that zigzags more than four meters in the air; while in Zeng Fanzhi's ominous landscape painting Untitled (2012), gnarled branches crisscross the lower registers of a nocturnal scene that combines controlled calligraphic techniques and supernatural light effects.

On October 25th at 2pm, dancers Raphaëlle Delaunay, Benjamin Pech, and Alice Renevand will perform an original ballet choreographed by Pech, étoile dancer at the Ballet de l'Opera National de Paris, to compositions by Claude Debussy, Antonio Vivaldi, and contemporary composer Emanuele De Raymondi.

Image: DAN COLEN An Allegory of Faith, 2008, oil on canvas,84 x 124 inches (213.4 x 315 cm)

For press inquiries please contact Edouard Pradère at edouard@gagosian.com or at +33.1.75.00.05.92. All images are subject to copyright. Gallery approval must be granted prior to reproduction.

Opening reception: Saturday, October 25th, from 2:00 to 6:00 pm

Gagosian Gallery
800 Avenue de l'Europe 93350 Le Bourget (Paris)
Hours: Tue-Sat 11-6 & by appointment

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