13 – 20 October 2019

Mains amies

Joint exhibition with Galerie Marcelle Alix

Group-show: Aurélien Froment, Louise Hervé & Clovis Maillet, Ian Kaier, Laura Lamiel, Liz Magor, Charlotte Moth
At the occasion of Paris Avant-Première and FIAC

Together, we have turned towards age-old objects, so that, in turn, they could turn towards contemporary forms, which already exist for some — that are totally suited to the space — and which are called upon by this encounter for others. As the title suggests, this would involve touching artworks and objects — that which is ancient and that which is new —, with the same passion as archeologists whose hands excavate the ground. Here, the desire to protect the rare and precious object puts itself above all at the service of a sensory and material apprehension. The eye and the hand take pleasure in literally falling on the objects as in Philip Guston’s paintings, where the eye sticks to what it is looking at. We are not exactly locating ourselves within the realm of the museum, more so in that of the museum-house, wherein the body finds on its way familiar benchmarks, in the continuity of a history of exhibitions turned towards the home and the obsessions that are sheltered within it. While the recent artworks seek, out of habit, the voids or the gaps, they will, for this project, learn to slide towards the realm of antiquities, which silently appeal to their primary use. This whole living environment — from the gardens to the kitchen, as well as the office and the guest bedroom —, provides all these creations gathered and brought together with light, smell and music, an afterworld, but also a future in this world. Cécilia Becanovic
Some contemporary artists take elements of the lived experience and recompose them into systems, altering their original functions, placing them together, by association. When we look at these objects recomposed by these artists, we form a mental picture (Lamiel, Magor). Sometimes this also happens with the help of gestures (Louise Hervé and Clovis Maillet). Archaeology is the analysis and interpretation of objects from the past. We try to read these objects in their utilitarian and social functions, through the imagination that the objects themselves provoke (myths, rites), but also in their contextualization in relation to other objects (excavations). And this is what animates our reflection: the use of objects from the past by a living contemporary artist, reintegrated into an artificial context, or at least chosen by him.her. Let us say that it is a sensitive way of reading, necessarily individual and reflecting our world, that is to say the world in which the artist lives, whose roots are those of our society, and not by locking them up in shop windows, reducing them to art objects or decorative objects. Another way of using these leftovers is by interpreting them as objects of today’s past. Acting or musical performances programmed at the opening will bring a visual and auditory dimension to our selection of works. Jean-David Cahn