Invisible Monuments
26 May–21 July 2012
Opening:
Friday 25 May, 6–9:30pm
Performance by Iris Touliatou during the opening
Free shuttle bus leaving from Paris, 7pm
La Galerie, Contemporary Art Centre
1, rue Jean Jaurès
F-93130 Noisy-le-Sec, France
Hours: Tuesday–Friday, 2–6pm
Saturday, 2–7pm and by appointment
Admission is free
T +33 (0)1 49 42 67 17
marjolaine.calipel [at] noisylesec.fr
Artists: Fayçal Baghriche, Eric Baudelaire, Tomaso De Luca, goldiechiari, Iris Touliatou, Stefanos Tsivopoulos
Curated by Costanza Paissan
As part of the annual foreign curator in residence programme, La Galerie is welcoming Costanza Paissan, from Italy. Chosen by a judging panel after a call for candidates, she will be in residence from 5 April to 5 July 2012 and will devote her time at La Galerie to the exhibition project Invisible Monuments.
In his essay “Monuments,” Austrian writer Robert Musil addresses the question of how monuments are perceived, describing them as “invisible” and “impregnated with something that repels attention.”
The exhibition takes Musil’s paradox of vision and attention as its starting point: monuments, while intended to attract the eye, are in fact imperceptible and “gaze-repellent.” “At variance with our senses, they slip out of view.”
What does this imply for those great tributes to the past, those statues of heroes and those buildings dedicated to “memorable” moments? Where are the traces of those who have gone before us, our exemplars for the present and the pillars on which to build the future?
The works on show challenge and criticize the concept of the monument, pointing up its fragility and suggesting both new interpretations and hitherto untested interconnections with history and its traces.
The artists are speaking to us about the past and memory as shifting elements, endowed with a variable, flexible identity and the blurry contours of truth and fiction, forgetting and remembering.
Yet, the monument has not vanished: by taking on other forms it still shows through on a secret, hidden stage, clad in a new, magical robe woven from questions and doubts rather than truths taken for granted.
Annual residency programme for curators at Noisy-le-Sec / Paris, France
Since 2006, La Galerie has hosted foreign curators for an annual three-month residency, in order to support an exhibition in a French contemporary art centre and allowing a discovery of the Île-de-France contemporary scene (artists, professionals, other organizations…). The annual residency for curators at La Galerie is receiving the backing of DRAC Île-de-France (Ministry of Culture).
Forthcoming programme at La Galerie
Emmanuelle Castellan
15 September–17 November 2012
Opening: Friday 14 September
Virginie Yassef
and The Seine-Saint-Denis département Contemporary Art Collection
Works by different artists on show in various Noisy-le-Sec venues
1 December 2012–9 February 2013
Opening: Friday 2 December
Access by train in 10 minutes from Paris:
RER line E from Saint-Lazare/Haussmann or Gare du Nord, then 10 minutes walk
La Galerie Contemporary art centre is financed by the city of Noisy-le-Sec, with the support of the Ile-de-France/Ministry of Culture and Communications Regional Cultural Affairs Board, the Seine-Saint-Denis Département, and the Ile-de-France Region.
La Galerie is a member of:
tram, Paris/Île de France contemporary art network: www.tram-idf.fr
d.c.a, French association for the development of art centres: www.dca-art.com
