Neither Appearance nor Illusion. Sentences written in French using neon tubing are suspended along the walls of the medieval Louvre. Joseph Kosuth temporarily lays claim to the excavated ancient Louvre, offering visitors a dense and luminous work. He has thus chosen to work in the Louvre's medieval moat and write on the old walls of the ramparts, the keep and Saint Louis Room, thereby inviting spectators into this mysterious, subterranean space. Curated by Marie-Laure Bernadac.
curated by Marie-Laure Bernadac
Sentences written in French using neon tubing are
suspended along the walls of the medieval Louvre.
Joseph Kosuth, a major figure of the contemporary
international art scene, temporarily lays claim to the
excavated ancient Louvre, offering visitors a dense
and luminous work.
The influential American artist Joseph Kosuth is widely
regarded as a leading proponent, and one of the founders,
of conceptual art, a movement which emerged in New
York in the 1960s. His work considers art to be the
production of meaning and thus the idea, or concept,
becomes the defining component of a work of art, often
eliminating the materiality of the art object altogether.
Since the mid-1960’s, Kosuth’s work has focused on the
connections between words and things, between language
and representation.
As his work is conceptually based
and not media defined, he employs various strategies for
his work, from photos with common objects or neon
tubing (Centre Pompidou Collection) to texts sandblasted
in stone (Champollion Monument, Places des Écritures,
Figeac).
Kosuth create installations with texts, often
monumental in size, usually comprised of quotations
from different sources: literature, philosophy,
anthropology, among others. His public works, as well as
works in most public and private collections, can be
found in most countries in Europe, The United States and
Japan and elsewhere. Joseph Kosuth’s most recent
installations include a project on the Isola di San Lazzaro
for the Venice Biennale in 2007 and another at La Casa
Encendida in Madrid in 2008.
This time, the artist has decided to work in the moats of
the medieval Louvre and to write on the old walls of the
medieval palace, encouraging the visitor to rediscover
this mysterious, underground space.
The title of this installation, ‘Neither Appearance nor
Illusion’ (‘ni apparence ni illusion’) is taken from a quote
of Friedrich Nietzsche. The installation’s fifteen
sentences, distributed in various positions along the
walls, suggest a quest both experiential and introspective.
They play on the complex relationships between history,
archeology and the role of the visitor to complete the
work themselves. The artist, an originator of
appropriation and well known for the use of texts and
quotations of others for his works, has decided in this
case, and for the first time since 1979, to construct the
texts himself.
Musée du Louvre / Communications Aggy Lerolle aggy.lerolle@louvre.fr
Press relations Céline Dauvergne +33 (0)1 40 20 84 66 / 54 52 (fax)
celine.dauvergne@louvre.fr
Image: © Joseph Kosuth Studio (Seamus Farrell)
Opening 22 October, 2009
Sully Wing, Medieval Louvre (moat, keep, crypt), Saint Louis Room
Musee du Louvre
Under the pyramide Quai du Louvre, Paris
Hours: Open every day except Tuesdays, from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m.
Wednesdays and Fridays until 10 p.m.
Access to the exhibition is included in the
purchase of an admission to the
museum’s permanent collections: 9€; 6€
after 6 p.m. on Wednesdays and Fridays.