Vera Molnar

Vera Molnar
Perspectives and Variations
February 6 – April 26, 2009

ARTISTS / exhibition : Vera Molnar & exhibition bis : Amélie Dubois

1bis rue des Trinitaires, F-57000 Metz
Tel. : 0033 (0)3 87 74 20 02
info [​at​] fraclorraine.org

www.fraclorraine.org

Born in 1924 in Hungary, Vera Molnar settled in Paris in the 1950s after having completed her studies at the School of Fine Arts in Budapest. Close to minimalist esthetic through her use of two-color process and to geometrical forms, her work, eminently conceptual due to the interplay of method and questioning, escapes fashions and historical categories. In order to do away with what she calls “mental-cultural ready-mades,” Vera Molnar employs different programmatic games and mathematical principles in order to produce series of work guided by a unifying quest for the invisible. However, like the members of the Oulipo, she never shrinks from playing with and foiling self-imposed constraints.

At Frac Lorraine, she presents two in situ creations, enlargements of smaller historical works. She thus produces wall paintings for the gigantic walls in the exhibit halls. Two principles are at play here: the delegation of production to others and the change of scale. By questioning these fundamental elements of creation (the artist’s hand, the size of the work), she reminds us that the idea of the artwork takes precedence over its production which is conditioned by contingent criteria.

Promenade (presque) aléatoire (1998-1999; Frac Lorraine collections), an installation previously unseen in Lorraine, completes this necessarily subjective selection with respect to sixty years of creation.

Echoing this work, Amélie Dubois (born in 1983) presents a visual and sound installation Le Monde (2006-2007). Over the period of a year, with the help of a software program, she transcribed the front pages of the daily Le Monde into musical scores. Then she gave them to a pianist for free interpretation, with the constraint of daily recording. These music pieces are randomly played in the exhibition space where the scores are visible together with Poésies (2007) a serie of starry and encoded sky photographs.

Representing different generations, these two artists are compelled to obey a system, a determined protocol which underscores the process of realization of the work. This freely imposed constraint is not a hindrance; on the contrary, it is an undeniable production of visual and sound poetry.

ACCESS / 49 NORD 6 EST – Frac Lorraine, 1bis rue des Trinitaires, F-57000 Metz
Tel. : 0033 (0)3 87 74 20 02 / info@fraclorraine.org

www.fraclorraine.org

Admission free.
Open Wednesday to Sunday from 12-7pm.
Free guided visits on Wednesdays from 4-5pm and Sundays from 5-6pm.
Group visits by request Tel.: 00 33(0)3 87 74 55 00.

The Fonds régional d’art contemporain de Lorraine, a member of “Platform” network, enjoys financial backing from the Lorraine Regional Council and the Lorraine Region Cultural Affairs Department (DRAC) at the Ministry of Culture and Communication.