Recently, a lot of initiatives have appeared to bring contemporary art to more intimate places : a bookstore/gallery, an art café, exhibitions in apartments, collectors inviting artists in the private rooms of a restaurant, gallerists who put up bookshelves, sofas, and vintage record player in their galleries : far from the White Cube, these new modes of exhibition fulfill a pressing need : the need to bring the public and the art closer.
Under Construction Gallery during #Biblioteca, curated by Aurélie Faure, Christmas 2015. Photography : Rebecca Fanuele.
Far away from the glitter and dazzle, from the confusion between art and luxury that brands and the tourism industry encourage, particularly during the Christmas season, in these places, art is shared on a confortable sofa, and in a completely different time – the time needed to experience and savour an artwork, and to develop an authentic link with it.
When the setting is right, contemporary art becomes a lived experience again, and art is where artists and the public can share emotions together. And also something that the French call “art de vivre”, when art is enjoyed with the other pleasures of life – music, food, the pleasure of a friendly discussion, books.
The art which is shown in these places may not be exactly the same. Small formats, multiple editions, discreet art, art which can be enjoyed without the question of its price coming in the way.
Jimmy Marble, from his series LAtopia
Of course, the purpose of these events is still to sell art. The artists need it, they make a living from it. But it’s a different way to buy art, after a meeting of sensibilities has taken place.
The artists that PSAC has invited in Saint Mandé for a private exhibition had only one thing in common : all of them believe that art communicates emotions, offers shared moments and visions.
Jimmy Marble, a filmmaker and photographer based in Los Angeles, dreams of a city that would free the creative energies of her younthful inhabitants. Eve Clair discreetly evokes in her engravings love sorrows and the serenity beyond the tempest, the weeping trees, and tormented skies. Erolf Totort peoples her engravings and books with a prehistoric woman, Ava, an imaginary woman who inventes the civilization of freedom that could have been. Ludovic Boulard Le Fur uses every weapon available to drawing to create unexected links between the Hermes silk scarf, comics, and characters that seem to have stepped out of a prehistoric myth. Claire Chauvel hides in her drawings the traces of lost hamlets, and the mountains, heavy with colors draw close like curtains, clouds, sea, an invitation to get lost in the untouched landscape. Damien Boissier, set designer for the movies, and DJ, weaves colors and shapes, infinitly looking for pure sensations. Kaia Kiik captures inside the resin of her paintings some earth, and pigments, some spices, flour, fire, some of the patient Estonian time.
Eve Clair, Engraving, 1/5.
All, invitations to an imaginary voyage.
Thank you HART for supporting this initiative!
Ludmilla Barrand, Novembre 29, 2015.