Press release - Centre international d`art et du paysage de l`île de

Press Release/ Centre international d’art et du paysage de l’île de Vassivière
MY PRIVATE ESCAPED FROM ITALY
Francis Alÿs, Micol Assaël, Kris Martin, Michael Sailstorfer,
Hans Schabus, Gregor Schneider, Patrick Tuttofuoco
Curated by Barbara Casavecchia and Anna Daneri
Private opening
18 November 2006 at 18h
Discussion by Jan Hoet, Director of the Marta Museum, Herford at 16h30
Open to the public
19 November 2006 to 11 February 2007
How do you show and yet not show a private collection? How do you give a public exhibition the
dimension of a domestic space, given the collector’s obsession for monumental sculptures and
installations? And how do you deal with the fact that he wishes to remain anonymous, but not
invisible? The exhibit-project MY PRIVATE – conceived by Barbara Casavecchia, Anna Daneri and
Paola Manfrin – tries to confront these questions and their multiple paradoxes.
In a game of role reversal, the collector is thus transformed into the commander not of unique works of
art – as one might expect – but of unique solo-shows, set up by guest artists, regularly, once a year. For
the ephemeral moment of a private opening, these site-specific exhibitions abusively ‘squat’ different
places, very often ‘work in progress’ and with no relation to art. Everything is thought out for a single
evening, as if it were a furtive intrusion into a bank vault. The only evidence that testifies to the event is
a bilingual publication in a limited edition, unveiling private aspects of the artist’s work and
documenting its presence in the collection.
MY PRIVATE was inaugurated in 2003 with a labyrinth intervention by Gregor Schneider inside the
building site at via Pasteur 21 in Milan, followed in 2004 by a neon installation, video and light show
by Patrick Tuttofuoco at the same address, later on transformed into a residential complex. In 2005,
MY PRIVATE moved to a 2000-m2 industrial warehouse under construction at Cernusco sul
Naviglio, in the Milanese hinterland, to house the ironic, monumental works of Michael Sailstorfer.
This year instead, MY PRIVATE migrated to Turin with a bewildering new performance by Pietro
Roccasalva (11 November), hosted under the dome an old Baptist church downtown at via Lagrange
13.
However something unexpected has happened. The phantom collector has fallen for the charm of the
Centre international d’art et du paysage de l’ile de Vassivière and the insistence of Chiara
Parisi, who, since her appointment as director of the Centre d’art, has dedicated herself to making
Vassivière a place of production detached from the traditional art circuits. A germinal place through
which new energies are developed and emerge, capable of shaking up the waters of the lake where
Vassivière Island and this symbolic place of art stand.
MY PRIVATE ESCAPED FROM ITALY is the first group show of this cycle whose duration is
prolonged (from 19 November 2006 to 11 February 2007) and which takes place in an institution. In
respect to the original format, the artists were invited to work in relation with the existing architecture
and to present works tied to the idea of privacy. In the installation by Francis Alÿs, Closed Circuit, the
Centre d’art itself “unveils” its most private aspects by exposing its working/producing mechanisms,
which are usually hidden in the wings. A system of closed-circuit video surveillance transmits the dayto-day activities of the office over a screen to the inner spaces of the library.
Patrick Tuttofuoco confronts Aldo Rossi’s lighthouse with the light-and-sound installation Y, carried
out in collaboration with the musical group BHF (in line with the artist’s predilection for team work,
shared experiences, and rhizomic practices, as opposed to individual creation). With the ray of light
…Follow the Sun!, he welcomes the visitors and invites them to venture into the exhibition espaces, as
well as along the paths of the forest. By a similar strategy, Kris Martin marks the border between
landscape and architecture with Conductor, a slim wand that, fixed to a branch, moves at the whim of
the wind, progressively rises to the crescendo rhythm of the young tree and ‘conducts’ the Centre d’art.
To show the works of Gregor Schneider, the majestic spaces of the nave convert themselves into an
obligatory and confined passage, hosting an invisible piece, as well as photographs, sculptures and a
large double projection, which ‘stalks’ the artist around his meandering home in Rheydt and its
doppelganger, rebuilt by Schneider inside the German Pavilion at 2001 Venice Biennale (Golden Lion).
Micol Assaël's installation Your Hidden Sound records the noises made by a bird who took shelter in
her studio. The Atelier, left completely empty, echoes with the flapping of its wings and the paces
of the artist who tries in vain to catch it. A situation of suspense then occurs, a frightening ‘thriller’
atmosphere stirring up mixed feelings in the viewers who become empathically involved.
Zentrale (Tisch) by Hans Schabus is an “animated” table that miniaturizes and metaphorically
recreates the space of his studio, understood as a place dense with drawings, instruments and
individual fantasies. The exhibition also offers the first showing of the work Leck mich am Arsch
(Teppich), a “carpet” made by sewing together all the clothes thrown out when the artist last moved
house.
Kris Martin exceptionally lends to MY PRIVATE a gift offered to his son at birth: the volume on
which he transcribed in handwriting all of Dostoyevsky’s The Idiot, as well as the desk that he used to
accomplish this work. His intervention extends into the sculpture garden of Centre d’art (which
welcomes environmental works by A. Goldsworthy, I. & E. Kabakov, O. Mosset, M. Pistoletto and
others) with
Michael Sailstorfer recreates in the gardens his first work Waldputz, until now only documented
from the perspective of photography: a perfectly clean rectangle of forest, delimited by four trunks,
marks out the space – individual, mental, abstract – by which the artist’s work takes shape. Sailstorfer
also takes over the upper rooms of the Centre with a slide projection recording the transformations of
bus stops in his native Bavaria into temporarily habitable, comfortable, human-size spaces.
The exhibition, following the path of the 2005 exhibition Strictly Confidential. From the collection of
Marc and Josée Gensollen proposes to sketch a portrait of the private collectors’ personalities and social
behaviours inside system of contemporary art, putting forward their ambiguous relationship towards
the works but also towards the artists that they appeal to. Hans Schabus's "rug" is in that regard an
eloquent metaphor of the intimate and somewhat morbid relationship between the artist and his work
and consequently between the artist and the collector.
On the occasion of the exhibition, the catalog My private escaped from Italy is edited by Silvana Editoriale
(Milan) under the artistic direction of Paola Manfrin and Dario Villa.
Centre international d’art et du paysage
Ile de Vassivière F - 87120
Presse office
Frédéric Legros
tél: +33 (0)5 55 69 27 27
fax: +33 (0)5 55 69 29 31
[email protected]
www.ciapiledevassiere.com
Opening hours: Tuesday to Friday from 2 pm to 6 pm, Saturday from 11 am to 1 pm, 2 pm to
6 pm
Admission: normal price: 3 euros/half price: 1,5 euros children over 12, students,
unemployed/free: children under 12, handicapped persons and their companions, Friends of the
Centre international d’art et du paysage de l’île de Vassivière, Artothèque subscribers.
The International Center for Art and Landscape receives support from the Ministry of
Culture and Communication/Drac Limousin, the Limousin Regional Board, the General
Board of la Creuse and the Mixed Regional and Inter-departmental Syndicate of Vassivière
en Limousin (SYMIVA).
The exhibition My private escaped from Italy is carried out in partnership with Naturalia
and Pro Natura.
Francis Alÿs
Born in Anvers, Belgium in 1959. Lives and works in Mexico.
Francis Alÿs creates immaterial works which are subtle interventions in the daily life of the city. Her
favorite “medium” is walking. Inspired by the artistic practices of the 1960’s (minimalism, land art,
the wanderings of Richard Long), Francis Alÿs furrows on foot the great cities of the world (Mexico,
her adopted city, as well as Paris, Copenhagen, São Paulo, Jerusalem, New York or London) to
unwind the thread of imaginary stories.
Solo exhibitions: 2006, Francis Alys, Portikus, Francfort, Allemagne ; 2004, Francis Alÿs, Collection
Lambert, Musée d’Art Contemporain, Avignon, France ; 2002, Projects 76 - Francis Alÿs; Modern
Procession, Museum of Modern Art, New York, Etats-Unis ; FREE MATRIX 2, Castello di Rivoli,
Turin, Italie
Group exhibitions: 2005, PERFORMA 05. The First Biennial of New Visual Art Performance, New
York, Etats-Unis ; 2004, 14th Biennale of Sydney, Sydney, Australie ; São Paulo Biennale, São Paolo,
Brésil ; 2003, 4th Bienal de Mercosur, Porto Alegre, Brésil ; 2002-2003, Shanghai Biennale 2002,
Shanghai, Chine ; 2001, The Ambassador, 49ème Biennale de Venise, Venise, Italie
Micol Assaël
Born in Rome, Italy in 1979. Lives and works in Rome, Italy.
The spaces imagined by Micol Assaël are bare and often glacial and hostile. Empty landscapes in
which she places domestic objects surrounded by tapes, transformers, flashes ... fields of energy and
lines of tension that change the perception of space by submitting it to subtle physical and
psychological violence. Micol Assaël’s work is certainly visual, but above all else it is tactile and
acoustic.
Solo exhibitions: 2007, Kunsthalle Basel, Bâle, Suisse ; 2005, Free Fall in the Vortex of Time, ZERO...
Milan, Italie ; 2002, La Folie de la Villa Medicis, Villa Medicis, Académie de France, Rome, Italie
Group exhibitions: 2006, Of mice and men – 4ème Biennale de Berlin, Berlin, Allemagne ; 2005/06, The
Pantagruel Syndrome, T1 – Turin Triennial Threemuseums, Turin, Italie ; 2005, Sempre un pò più
lontano, 51ème Biennale de Venise, Venise, Italie ; Dialectics of hope-1°, Biennale d’art contemporain de
Moscou, Moscou, Russie ; 2004, Sogni e Conflitti: La Dittatura dello Spettatore, 50ème Biennale de
Venise, Venise, Italie
Kris Martin
Born in 1972, he lives and works in Kortrijk, Gand, in Belgium.
The experience of time, and the wish to understand it so as to be able to overcome it, is a key element
in Kris Martin’s work. The presence of his productions makes the observer quest himself about his
own position not only in respect to the work but also vis-à-vis the larger frame of his existence.
Solo exhibitions: 2006, DEUS EX MACHINA, Johann König, Berlin ; 2005, Neuer Aachener
Kunstverein, Aachen, Allemagne ; Sies + Höke Galerie, Düsseldorf, Allemagne ; 2004, Beaulieu
Gallery, Wortegem-Petegem, Belgique
Group exhibitions: 2006 , Faster! Bigger! Better!, Signetwerke der Sammlungen, ZKM, Museum für
neue Kunst, Karlsruhe, Allemagne ; Of Mice and Men, 4th Berlin Biennial for Contemporary Art, Berlin,
Allemagne ; 2003, The distance between Me and You, Lisson Gallery, London
Michael Sailstorfer
Born in Vilsbiburg, Germany in 1979. Lives and works in London.
Michael Sailstorfer loves to dissembles vehicles or objects, an activity that enables him to understand
from the inside all sorts of constructions that surround us. But if he dissembles, it’s especially in order
to reconstruct better and offer the initial object a new birth. Through this process of metamorphosis
that is at the same time work and play, he dedicates himself to creating a work that, given a new name,
sets the story machine in motion.
Solo exhibitions: 2006, DEUS EX MACHINA, Johann König, Berlin ; 2005, Neuer Aachener
Kunstverein, Aachen, Allemagne ; Sies + Höke Galerie, Düsseldorf, Allemagne ; 2004, Beaulieu
Gallery, Wortegem-Petegem, Belgique
Group exhibitions: 2006 , Faster! Bigger! Better!, Signetwerke der Sammlungen, ZKM, Museum für
neue Kunst, Karlsruhe, Allemagne ; Of Mice and Men, 4th Berlin Biennial for Contemporary Art, Berlin,
Allemagne ; 2003, The distance between Me and You, Lisson Gallery, London
Hans Schabus
Born in Watschig, Austria in 1970. Lives and works in Vienna.
Hans Schabus escapes all attempts at classification. Sculptor, installer, architect, creator of volumes
and organizer of circulation, he works reality on several levels simultaneously: ethics, aesthetics, social
and political, always with the support of extensive documentation, his favorite tools being photography
and film.
Solo exhibitions: 2006, To Live is to Fly, Attitudes – espace d’arts contemporains, Genève, Suisse ;
...should I leave or should I go..., Galleria Zero, Milan, Italie ; 2005, The Last Land, Biennale de Venise,
Venise, Italie ; 2002, Rest in piece, Statements, Art Basel 32, Kerstin Engholm Galerie, Vienne,
Autriche
Group exhibitions: 2006, Liverpool Biennial – International Festival of Contemporary Art, Liverpool ;
2005/06, The Pantagruel Syndrome, T1 – Turin Triennial Threemuseums, Turin, Italie ; 2004, Schabus,
Skreber, Föttinger, Sies + Hoeke Galerie, Düsseldorf ; Les Temps Modernes, Galerie de Multiples, Paris
Gregor Schneider
Born in Rheydt, Germany in 1969. Lives and works in Rheydt.
For twenty years, Gregor Schneider has been "re-arranging" the house he inherited from his father.
The artist, who some years ago represented Germany at the Venice Biennial, has thrown out all the
elements of comfort in order to make a kind of a home of dread. Comprised of door-less rooms or
room-less doors, with acoustic insulation in lead, it is a scary space of partitions behind which there is
nothing. A whole device that short-circuits the sense of orientation and provokes uneasiness. His
work feeds on the idea that action is a higher form than thought.
Solo exhibitions: 2006, Doublings. Fotos Videos Skulpturen, Luis Campaña Galerie, Köln,
Allemagne ; 2005, Cube Venice 2005, Gallery Konrad Fischer, Düsseldorf, Allemagne ; 2004, Die
Familie Schneider, Artangel London, Londres, Angleterre
Group exhibitions: 2006, Landscapes, Wako Works Of Art, Tokyo, Japon ; Into Me / Out of Me, P.S.1
Contemporary Art Center, New York, Etats-Unis ; 2005, 51. International Art Exhibition- Biennale de
Venise, Venise, Italie ; Trials and Terrors, Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago, Chicago, Etats-Unis;
2004, 20 Years of Artist’s Collaborations, Kunsthaus Zürich, Zürich, Autriche
Patrick Tuttofuoco
Born in Milan, Italy in 1974. Lives and works in Milan.
Patrick Tuttofuoco works on a re-reading of urban forms, on different modalities of collaboration and
on entertainment. In his work, human relations seem to be recapitulated by geometries and
abstractions, objects, architectures that constitute maps for a geography of collective experience in an
endeavor to lend an identity to something that is in a constant state of change.
Solo exhibitions: 2006, Revolving Landscape, Fondazione Sandretto Re Rebaudengo, Turin, Italie ;
2005, The Circle, Guenzani via Melzo 5, Milan, Italie ; 2004, My Private #2. Via Pasteur, Milan,
Italie ; 2002, Studio Guenzani, Milan, Italie ; 2000, Studio Guenzani, Milan, Italie
Group exhibitions: 2006, On Mobility, De Appel Centre for Contemporary Art, Amsterdam, PaysBas ; 2004, Manifesta 5: European Biennial of Contemporary Art, San Sebastian ; 2003, The Zone: 50ème
Biennale de Venise, Venise, Italie ; 2001, Turn On, Ikon Gallery, Birmingham, Angleterre
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