Alexia Fabre, Head Curator, has just finished hanging the new MAC/VAL collection … focusing on colour and the latest museum acquisitions, as well on two invitations made to Annette Messager and Kader Attia. Through propositions from nearly fifty artists, an enchanting future unfurls.
Under the title, “Vivement demain”, the exhibition can be interpreted on four levels:
— the universe in which we live, showing us the leeway to exist and invent new ideas with works by Valérie Jouve, Anri Sala, Thierry Fontaine…
— urban or political utopies, with works by Alain Bublex, Kader Attia…
— the question of childhood and what it arouses in regards to hopes for the future, illustrated by Sarkis, Françoise Pétrovitch, Anri sala…
— that of Nature with notably the work by Pierre Huyghe, Streamside Day, which summarizes this Parcours #5 by questioning living together and the ties upon which a community is based.:. food for thought as to questioning the future of our society! And depending on whether we’re optimistic or more apt to see the negative side, each person can adapt the tone they like to “Vivement demain” according to their mood.
The fifth Parcours in this regional collection in the Val-de-Marne, proposed by Alexia Fabre, emphasizes a contemporary art institutional fund initiated in 1982 and today counts over two thousand works. The new hanging presents a large number of newly acquired works, illustrating a voluntary approach to support living artists, to defend all creative art, which heartily thanks state intervention. Among the new-arrivals for the MAC/VAL collection, the visitor will discover Anri Sala – the next French representative at the Venice Biennela – with Le clash, a disturbing video which gives the ton of the general theme by questioning the idea of choice (and The Clash launching into Should I stay or should I go). There are also works by Richard Fauguet, Kimsooja, Thierry Fontaine, Valérie Jouve, Pierre Malphettes… who are here to mingle with the emblematic collection works, such as the one by Tania Mouraud, with her animaux hurlant, or the huge installation Les trésors de la mémoire by Sarkis which will appear in the nave.
A certain number of works show how the MAC/VAL collection resonates with temporary exhibits – coming across Jean-Luc Verna with his Paramour, Claude Lévêque and his DATAPANIK and Éric Duyckaerts with his latest videos made for his MAC/VAL monographic exhibit …
Others will highlight the museum’s residence activity where several artists are invited from around the world each year. These are signed by the Indian artist Shilpa Gupta or the Mexican artist Pedro Reyes.
And to complete all this, two artists are invited to better initiate the visitor to project themselves into the future. Within the Parcours, Kader Attia will present his imposing Untitled (Skyline) and for the occasion, Annette Messager will make a surprising installation, Danses du scalp, as joyous as it is alarming!
So as of March 10, at the MAC/VAL, it will be “about tomorrow and this power to anticipate, so typical of human beings. But isn’t it also this visionary power that is so-often attributed to artists? Do they belong to this separate race of mystics, fortune-tellers and other prophesiers?” questions Alexia Fabre.
“Does interpreting or deciphering the world in poetic, personal or metaphoric ways make the artist able to predict our future? Does their clairvoyancy make them a Messiah in our societies? Philosophers have spend time considering this question … art history tends to be written in the past and is checked later.”