Augustin Lesage and Elmar Trenkwalder
les inspires
June 11th to September 7th
Andrea Blum
birdhouse café
June 11th to October 5th
10 bd de la bastille
75012 Paris, france
Augustin Lesage and Elmar Trenkwalder, inspired artists
The summer 2008 exhibition at la maison rouge is an encounter between two bodies of work: that of the French mediumistic artist Augustin Lesage (born 1876 in Auchel, France – died 1954 in Burbure, France) and the Austrian sculptor and painter Elmar Trenkwalder (born 1959 in Weißenbach am Lech, Austrian).
Two singular oeuvres, distinct as much for their era as for the form of art with which they are associated – outsider art for one, contemporary art for the other – yet both produced by individuals who are equally convinced of the magical force of the artwork.
The exhibition will show paintings and drawings by Augustin Lesage and seven large sculptures by Elmar Trenkwalder, including three specially-created works, together with a selection of drawings.
The exhibition is co-produced by the Austrian Cultural Forum Paris.
The catalogue for the exhibition, in French and German, is published by Fage editions with texts by Savine Faupin, Frédéric Paul and Pierre Dourthe.
Andrea Blum, birdhouse café a project for the patio
This summer, la maison rouge has commissioned the American artist Andrea Blum to create a café in its patio, an area open to the sky at the heart of the foundation.
For la maison rouge, Andrea Blum has imagined a pavilion that stands on piles in the middle of the patio, which she transforms into an aviary.
Birdhouse Café (the project’s name) is intended as an extension of the Foundation’s own café, a social setting where people can meet over a drink or meal, and a place from which to observe and admire the birds as they fly around.
In a subtle switch, the observer becomes the observed: visitors sit perched inside the café, pecking at their food, while the birds fly “freely” around the pavilion. Not without a certain tongue-in-cheek humour, she turns the tables one more time by including in her project the glass-walled corridors of the exhibition space around the patio, where visitors gather to see what’s going on.