Akimblog
Paris, Rome, Berlin
LA FORCE DE L'ART 02 at the Grand Palais | Hiroshige at the Museo Fondazione Roma | Gregor Hildebrandt at Wentrup Gallery
posted by Stacey DeWolfe - May 7th, 2009.
From an olfactory perspective, Paris is one of the most challenging cities in the western world. As a traveler, I pride myself on an ability to adapt to new situations: to navigate the Metro without a map and use the local tongue in everyday exchanges. Strolling around the 10th Arrondisement like a modern day flâneuse, I basked in the sights and sounds of a city newly wakened from a winter’s sleep. The paths along the canal were crowded with dogwalkers and cyclists, and the air was filled with the chatter of friends. It was a glorious day, yet there was something standing in the way of my contentment: the city smells bad. And though I tried to reconcile myself to this aromatic reality, I was quite pleased to spend my last afternoon in the closed confines of the Grand Palais.
Built for the Paris Exhibition of 1900, the exquisite glass-domed hall of the Grand Palais is currently playing host to LA FORCE DE L’ART 02, the second edition of the French triennial of contemporary art. From an elevated perch atop Wang Du’s International Kebab – a sculptural installation made from photographs of Du’s native China, constructed to resemble a giant donair which visitors are instructed to carve as they climb – the exhibition sits rather awkwardly in the vast space, like a Japanese bento-box of brightly-coloured treasures, with each cube housing one of the thirty-six artists. Though many of the pieces left me a bit cold, the show is well-curated with a clarity of vision and purpose that makes the whole somehow greater than its individual parts.
Fabrice Hyber, POF Shop, 1999-2009 (courtesy: Fabrice Hyber et galerie Jérôme de Noirmont; photo: Didier Plowy)
That said, there is definitely some interesting work here. One of my favorites is Fabrice Hyber’s POF Shop, a multimedia installation, part boutique/part laboratory, that could be the set of a late-night infomercial. Upon entering, visitors are greeted by an array of strangely familiar “prototypes d’objects en fonctionnement” or POFs – a square ball, a car with two front-ends – and the instructions required to make and use them. Light in tone, the work is amusing yet speaks to the absurdities of consumer culture and its ability to transform the way we interact with our environment, as well as the need for more inventive approaches to sustainability.
Gilles Barbier, Sans Titre (War), 2008 (courtesy: galerie Georges-Philippe & Nathalie Vallois)
I was also quite taken with Gilles Barbier’s work. Here, a four-walled frame turns on its axis like a giant book sitting upright on its spine. Each of the surfaces contains a series of images housed under glass so that their content is reflected on the opposing wall. At first, the signs seem random: a drawing of an existing sculpture, dust mites in extreme close-up, fish hooks dangling with worms, and a bookshelf full of graphic novels. But there is a story here, it just demands a new way of reading – a point made manifest by an Escher-esque dissection of the “text” in one frame, an unraveling of language that reminds us of the many meanings hidden within its layers.
Anita Molinero, Sans Titre, 2005 (photo: Didier Plowy)
Another highlight is Anita Molinaro’s untitled work which overwhelms you with its plasticity and physical presence (a quality possessed by many of the sculptures that again speaks to the curatorial vision). Comprised of bright red garbage bins melted almost beyond recognition, it is suspended from the ceiling like an enormous indestructible chandelier. Molinaro describes her work as a “sculpture of abandonment.” Drawing inspiration from the detritus of urban life, she discovers the true value of found objects through their destruction and transformation.
Left: Utagawa Hiroshige, Thunderstorm at Ohashi; right: Vincent van Gogh, Bridge in the Rain (after Hiroshige)
Despite the plethora of churches, fountains and assorted ruins around every corner in Rome, we could not pass up the rare opportunity to see an exhibition of Japanese master Utagawa (Ando) Hiroshige at the Museo Fondazione Roma. A step away from the insanity of the crowds clustered around the Trevi Fountain, the interior of the museum is dark and silent, providing the perfect atmosphere for viewing Hiroshige’s remarkable prints. Trained in the art of ukiyo-e, or “pictures of a floating world,” the images appear as straightforward, topographical representations of the natural world. But this simplicity is deceptive, for these are profoundly romantic and affecting works, precursors to the graphic novel in their bold lines, block colours, and thoroughly modern perspectival experiments. That he was a major influence on Van Gogh and the impressionists comes as little surprise. Though Hiroshige also depicted the urban milieu, it is his portraits of rural life, especially in the winter scenes from the Stations of the Kyoto Trail, that I found most compelling. Though small in scale, the images draw you into their little worlds. You can almost feel the snow on your cheek and hear the wind whistling through the long grasses.
Gregor Hildebrandt, Großer Kassettensetzkasten, 2009, dispersion on cardboard, plastic in wooden case (courtesy: Wentrup, Berlin)
I was thrilled to discover that my arrival in Berlin coincided with the start of Gallery Weekend. Rarely does one have the opportunity to eat and drink their way around a city’s art scene, meeting the people who see, make and exhibit art, in addition to checking out the work itself. Though there were dozens of shows, my dwindling word count demands that I keep my focus to just one: Gregor Hildebrandt at Wentrup Gallery. Entitled DAß DIESER MAI NIE ENDE (If Only this May Would Never End) – a line from a classic German song by Konstantin Wecker – the exhibit is a continuation of the artist’s audio and video tape investigations. With its ability to subvert viewer expectations – what appears to be a painted surface is revealed to be a canvas covered with strips of glossy tape – his chosen medium also has the power to imbue the work with historical and cultural echoes. For example, the show's centrepiece is a gigantic cassette case housing roughly eight thousand tapes, their titles obscured by paint (again giving the perception that one is looking at a giant canvas). Yet, what cannot be completely destroyed is the almost literal resonance of the medium itself, which tells its own story about the time and place of its creation and transformation and about the artist’s own life and practice.
Stacey DeWolfe is a Montreal filmmaker and teacher. She has written for C Magazine and is the arts writer for the Montreal Mirror.
LA FORCE DE L’ART: http://www.laforcedelart.fr/
LA FORCE DE L’ART 02 continues until June 1.
Museo Fondazione Roma: http://www.museodelcorso.it/
Hiroshige: Master of Nature continues until June 7.
Wentrup Gallery http://www.janwentrup.com/
Gregor Hildebrandt: DAß DIESER MAI NIE ENDE continues until June 13.