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21/10/2004

Anish Kapoor

MAC's, Hornu

MELANCHOLIA
One man-show

2004 is an unprecedented cultural year for the Franco-Belgian border region with the naming of Lille as European Capital of Culture. Many activities are radiating from Lille which involve the cultural community of the Euro region in Nord-Pas-de-Calais, Hainaut, West Flanders, Kent, Essex and London.
Grand-Hornu is contributing to these events with two autumn exhibitions included in the official programme of the third phase of Lille 2004: "Ingo Maurer – Light – Reaching for the Moon" put on by Grand-Hornu Images and "Anish Kapoor" put on by MAC’s.


Anish Kapoor at MAC’s

From October 24th 2004 until March 6th 2005, the Grand-Hornu Museum of Contemporary Arts is opening its doors to the famous Indo-English artist, Anish Kapoor, who is considered to be a major figure in contemporary art.

MELANCHOLIA, one-man exhibition brings together, for the first time in Belgium, sculptures, large-scale installations, gouaches and drawings, most of which have never been displayed to the public before. A work will also be specially created for the exhibition.

The creator of "Marsyas", a huge sculpture which was one of the 2003 Unilever Series and commissioned for the turbine hall at the Tate Modern, Anish Kapoor is originally from Bombay but lives and works in London.

His original and enigmatic works, with their constant dialogue between two and three dimensions, ensured he very rapidly became an exceptional figure among the artists of his generation. Kapoor’s sculptures generally explore the opposites between men and women, light and darkness, the inner and outer. According to the artist, his works can also be understood as a summary of two different worlds: India, where he spent his first seventeen years, and England, where he has lived since his arrival in Europe.

Kapoor’s works have a strange, immaterial presence. Their surfaces, which appear to be made of light, invite the viewer to touch them, stimulating desire.

In addition to the obvious attraction of an exhibition featuring a major visual artist such as Anish Kapoor at MAC's, the artist’s approach is in many ways fully consistent with the founding concept of the museum and the exhibitions curated by Laurent Busine.
For Anish Kapoor, the interaction between the exhibition space and the works of art shown there is primordial. Because of this, the works of Anish Kapoor,
which are both serene and intimate in feel, have found a space at MAC's with which they can dialogue in total freedom.

The entire museum team invites you to explore this dialogue…
________

MELANCHOLIA

Laurent Busine's first comment when discussing the Anish Kapoor exhibition at MAC’s is the fact that he refused "to imprison the work of such a great artist within the known" and that on the contrary "we have to discover and make others discover new ways of being inventive". This says a lot about the exceptional nature of the Anish Kapoor exhibition at MAC’s.

Anish Kapoor and Laurent Busine

"It is Kapoor's relationship with the emotions and fragility which I really like …" says Laurent Busine who has known the artist for a long time.

Anish Kapoor's career is already a long one. For more than 25 years, he has been astonishing the world with his Indian heritage which adds an extraordinary touch to Western art. His contribution to sculpture is enormous through his revolutionary approach to structures, replacing heaviness with lightness.
His pigment sculptures successfully portray human fragility. The cavities filled with black pigment hollowed into large blocks of stone that Kapoor exhibited at the Venice Biennale create a feeling of infinity as their limits cannot be measured. They place us in an astonishing relationship with the finite which is suggested by the stone, the limits of which are so easily observable with the naked eye.
His large metal mirrors reflect our own image as well as that of the world around us, and invite us, the viewers, to see ourselves within the prism of immensity.
"Kapoor does not create illusions. He produces an object and it is this which creates the illusion. Its richness is derived from the tension between the object and what it shows. He invites human beings to examine themselves…In his mirrors… In the infinite," explains the Director of MAC’s, who continues "The artist's approach is very simple but the end result is enormous. This is a characteristic of truly great artists."

Anish Kapoor at MAC’s

All the exhibitions shown at MAC’s since its opening have had in common a very gentle quality. The Anish Kapoor exhibition continues this theme.

The works of the artist are highly consistent with this intimate approach. They continue this process of examining the poetic, and questioning oneself.
Even the largest pieces produced by Kapoor show this very powerfully. For example, Marsyas, a work measuring 160 metres and exhibited at the Tate Modern in London in 2002, dazzled us with its depth and plunged the viewer into disconcerting intimacy.

The Grand-Hornu site where MAC’s is located has something in common with the creations of the artist: his imposing and gigantic architecture produces a feeling of total intimacy for those who are willing to explore it.
The link between place and object is therefore a strong one. It is further strengthened by the close dialogue that Laurent Busine and Anish Kapoor want to set up between the unusual architecture of MAC’s and the artist's works.
Both men are driven by the same ambition which has resulted in joint discussions for more than two years.

The Anish Kapoor exhibition

"Not to imprison the work of such a great artist within the known" but on the contrary "to discover and make others discover new ways of being inventive" says Laurent Busine.

The exhibition which opens on the 24th of October 2004 is thus devoted to works which have mostly never been exhibited before in Belgium.
Most of these pieces have also not been exhibited to the public and have never been placed in dialogue with each other within the same space.
They show an aspect of Anish Kapoor's creativity which is not yet very well known although, of course, they are consistent with the artist's general approach to his work.
The exhibition which takes place over more than 4500 m², will use all the rooms at MAC’s and the Hay Store at Grand-Hornu.

The following items will be exhibited (non-exhaustive list):

+/- 100 drawings and gouaches
Hung as a series, they have an independent existence within the work of Anish Kapoor and examine themes dear to him such as, among other things, circles, the infinite, the sky, the Milky Way etc.
These are recent works, created over the last ten years, and of relatively small dimensions (50cm x 40cm and 80cm x 60cm).
They will be distributed throughout the exhibition, reflecting the artist's approach, as he produces them at the same time as his sculptures.

My Red Homeland (2003)
This piece has been exhibited only once between 27/09/2003 and 16/11/2003 at the Kunsthaus Bregenz in Austria.
It is a monumental installation consisting of a 12 metre diameter circle, the steel base of which is filled with 25 tonnes of red-coloured Vaseline.
The work is balanced by a steel arm constantly rotating around the central axis which churns the Vaseline at a precise speed and takes one hour to complete a full rotation.
Looking at this work, one immediately feels that the physical reality of the object is a prerequisite to its spiritual dimension. The artist considers this reality to be the gateway between the world of the physical and the constructed, and that of ideas and the spirit.
The approach of using coloured Vaseline can be compared to that used for the pigment sculptures, the special qualities of the material allowing Kapoor to combine artistic inspiration and illusion.
My Red Homeland cannot be compared to any other previous work. Viewers of this piece witness an immense act of creation, conceived as a never-ending independent process in which the artist does not appear to be the creator. Observers are confronted with continually changing mechanics in which start and finish do not correspond to their own perception of time, and where the issue of creation is intimately linked to that of destruction.
The work seems to have propelled itself from the ranks of object and been transformed, through its permanent mechanical movement, into a subject.
It will be installed in the square room at MAC’s.
Sculpture in plaster (subject to acceptance by the artist)
When visiting Kapoor in London, Laurent Busine was struck by a large cube-shaped plaster sculpture which he describes as disconcertingly intense.
It is the only work of this type created by Anish Kapoor. It describes a relationship with an enormous body and seems to prefigure a turning point in the artistic life of the artist.

MELANCHOLIA : piece commissioned for the exhibition
At the request of MAC’s, Anish Kapoor has agreed to create a new piece inspired by the exhibition space.
This aerial piece, similar in feel to Marsyas, explores the idea of transformation of a shape, starting with a circle and finishing with a square.
It measures 40 metres long by +/- 6.5 metres high.
It is made up of two base structures: a circle measuring 6.5 metres in diameter, and a square 6.5 metres along each side, which mark the start and end of the work respectively.
The two elements are joined by an immense white translucent canvas, the structure of which is similar to the canvas used for marquees. This canvas is made up of a multitude of cut-out strips following a precise template and assembled by collage.
The two base structures stand on concrete pedestals.
The work may appear to be simple, but is in fact highly complex from a technical point of view.
A real feat has been achieved in changing the shape of the circle to the square, all under a pressure equivalent to 10 tonnes.

As always with the artist, it is an invitation to travel between the finite and infinity, the intimate and gigantic, between physical limitations and spirituality.

The work will be installed in the Hay Store at Grand-Hornu.

The exhibition is accompanied by two publications, the first on the artist's drawings, and the second on the exhibition itself with a particular focus on the piece commissioned for the exhibition.

Special dates
Press conference in the presence of the artist: Friday October 22nd 2004 at 11am
Public preview: Sunday October 24th 2004 from 10am to 6pm
(unrestricted access and free guided tour)

Opening hours:
every day from 10 am to 6 pm, except Mondays, Christmas Day and New Year's Day.

Entrance price:
- combined ticket for the Grand-Hornu/MAC’s/
Grand-Hornu Images Site: 6 Euros
- Group rate (minimum of 15 people): 4 Euros
- School groups: 2 Euros
- Free for children under 6

Guided tours (reservation only): FR/DUTCH/GER/ENGL.
50 Euros for groups of no more than 25 people on weekdays
60 Euros for groups of no more than 25 people at weekends
Reservations: 00.32 (0) 65.61.38.67.

Special facilities for families during the October half-term and Christmas holidays (it is preferable to make a reservation).

Curator: Laurent Busine

Part of Lille 2004, sponsored by Fortis

To reach Grand-Hornu by road, leave the E19 Brussels-Paris motorway at junction 25 "Saint-Ghislain-Tertre-Hornu" and take the direction Saint-Ghislain, Hornu. Then follow the signs until you reach the site. Parking is free.
The closest stations are Saint-Ghislain and Mons. MAC’s can be reached by bus or taxi from Mons station. The museum can be reached by taxi from Saint-Ghislain station.

Publications
Two publications will be produced to accompany the exhibition:
A book on the drawings of Kapoor.
A publication on the exhibition with a behind-the-scenes look at the piece created for MAC’s, retracing the different phases of its creation and installation.
Available at the MAC’s bookshop.

Address:
MAC’s
Grand-Hornu Site
Rue Ste Louise, 7301 Hornu (near Mons)

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