calendario eventi  :: 

X

2/2/2001

Bricolages

Kunstmuseum, Ittingen

Pierre Bastien, Olivier Blanckart, Cécile Bonnet & Delphine Reist, Malachi Farrell, Hervé Graumann, Vincent Julliard, Kressig AG, Le Gentil Garçon, Mathieu Mercier, Joachim Mogarra, Hugues Reip, Pierrick Sorin, Cyril Verrier.

The exhibition Bricolages takes place in three thurgovian art institutions, totally or partly allocated to contemporary creation: the Kunstraum Kreuzlingen, the Kunstmuseum des Kantons Thurgau in Ittingen and the Projektraum of the Shed im Einsewerk in Frauenfeld.

In a period of time where technology is omnipresent, where overabundance has erected recycling as a crucial necessity, and where everyone is able to create its own little firm in his garage, it's seems fascinating to probe what the "do it yourself" notion means in the contemporary art field.

"Do it yourself", a term that has for a long time dragged a pejorative meaning - it is still sometimes nowadays the case - a work of à peu près, "fast done, wrong done". This until Claude Lévi-Strauss in "La pensée sauvage" (1962) has conferred a new aura to the word. It is in the extension of his analyse that the notion of tinkering interests us. The representation of the world that inscribes the handyman's figure who develops his own activity, is partly opposed to the engineer's one, whose action field results of the application of a theoretical knowledge.

The artists, ads Lévi-Strauss, inherit at once from the scientist and the handyman's knowledge: with craftsmen means, he makes a material object that is as well an object of knowledge. Today the human being has more spare time and access to very many different tools and technologies for individual use. The boundary between professional activity and hobby is more and more fading out, in the working duration as well as in the savoir-faire. The "do it yourself" mood is, to an extend, comparable to a start up or a home studio. It requires polyvalent skills for the use different of and techniques.

In parallel, the toolsrecycling of all types of materials has become as much an economical as an ecological necessity. The process that consists of making "new" out of "old" implies, in particular in the fine art field, a real love for materials, technical knowledge, aesthetic inventiveness, in brief a will of (re)-creation.

We're trying to value a specific point of view that would transform the "do it yourself" notion into a state of mind. The ability that pushes to try, explore, improvise and even sometimes to invent. A mental disposition that doesn't lead one to an à peu près, but on the contrary to the elaboration of an individual savoir-faire that enables the construction of a singular and personal universe.

The artists we've been chosen are building, deconstructing, transforming images, objects, structures and are developing a thought in multiples areas: from housing conditions to human condition, from music to game going through human body or the environment. Each of their practise are in their own way, a kind of "do it yourself", which we can qualify as a personal technology.

Most of the artists exhibiting in Bricolages live in the French part of Switzerland and in France. The choice reflects the will to give the opportunity to a specific Swiss area - north east of Switzerland - most frequently attracted by Germanic or British creation, to enlighten French-speaking artists' work.

The "do it yourself" notion - and practise - isn't of course peculiar to the French-speaking community, but it's seems judicious to remember that beyond the cliché according as French-speaking artists often create artworks linked to intellect, literal and formalism, many of them are well and truly first class handymen.

Jean-Paul Felley & Olivier Kaeser (translation Celya Larré)

Opening - Saturday, February 3 - at 17.00

Performance by Vincent Julliard h 17.30 in Kunstraum de Kreuzlingen.
Concert by Pierre Bastien 20.30 in Kunstmuseum d'Ittingen.

Lieux d'exposition:
Kunstraum Kreuzlingen - from 3/2/2001 to 18/3/2001
Kunstmuseum des Kantons Thurgau Kartause - Ittingen - from 3/2/2001 to 22/4/2001
Shed im Eisenwerk (Projektraum) - Frauenfeld - from 3/2/2001 to 24/3/2001

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