News

Nov 2016

The Second Nature

The exhibition brings together works that deal with our surrounding environment. They reflect natural phenomena using digital and electronic technology, and bring the sensory properties of these phenomena into the exhibition space. Visitors can plunge into forests, clouds and fields of stars: into a “second nature” that the artists themselves have created. Our impression of the world, our perception of nature, is shaped by the digital character of our age. These artists show us how the natural world can be represented and reconstructed almost seamlessly using technology, and they appeal to both our humor and our senses.

Artists:

Jonas Baumann, Pier Giorgio De Pinto, Philipp Gasser, Susanna Hertrich, Stefan Karrer, Thomas Lasbouygues, LAYTBEUIS, Philippe Lepeut, Philipp Madörin, Tim Otto Roth, Lingjie Wang & Jingfang Hao

Duration: 27.11.2016-08.01.2017

Over the Rainbow

Clouds and other meteorological phenomena take centre stage at the Musée du Cristal Saint-Louis, for a celebration of the poetry of weather. Devised by 49 Nord 6 Est – FRAC Lorraine, ‘Over the Rainbow’ presents an iconoclastic weather report, de-mythologising the contemporary art scene with a fresh, cross-disciplinary approach.

49 Nord 6 Est – FRAC Lorraine presents its second exhibition at La Grande Place, as the guest institution of the Fondation d’entreprise Hermès. Continuing the first show’s celestial theme, ‘Over the Rainbow’ explores the poetry of meteorology, deliberately ignoring the climatologists’ alarm bells to focus on creative artworks. ‘There is an urgent need for joyous creativity and dreams, right now,’ says Béatrice Josse, curator of the exhibition.

This resolutely positive approach draws on the perspectives of scientists, artists, amateurs and artisans, to reveal the secrets of our weather. At the heart of the Musée du Cristal, Lorraine artist Benoît Billotte continues his Sun line, traced in the first exhibition, while Yona Friedman and young Chinese artists Jingfang Hao & Lingjie Wang (based in nearby Mulhouse) work with a cloud and rainbow respectively.

Accompanying the artists’ work, ‘Over the Rainbow’ features items on exceptional loan from the archives of Météo-France, including remarkable watercolour plates by André des Gachons, painted between 1913 and 1951, representing the sky and cloudscapes at different times of day. Technology and artisanship come together in a theodolite from 1935, used to measure the height of clouds, and a blown-glass Christmas bauble in the form of a cumulus, from the Centre international d’art verrier in Meisenthal. A series of images of Épinal punctuates this unstinting dialogue between technology, art and artisanship, beneath the skies of the French department of Moselle.

Events

La Grande Place / Musée du Cristal Saint-Louis

Rue Coëtlosquet 57620 Saint-Louis-lès-Bitche, France

Daily, 10 a.m. to 6 p.m., except Tuesday

Information: +33 3 87 06 40 04

La Grande Place /Cristal Saint-Louis Museum, Saint-Louis-lès-Bitche, France : from 15/12/2016 to 22/05/2017

Team

Curator : Béatrice Josse

Artists from the 49 Nord 6 Est – Frac Lorraine collection, Metz: Benoît Billotte, Yona Friedman

Guest artists: Jingfang Hao et Lingjie Wang

Partners: Archives Météo-France ; Centre international d’art verrier, Meisenthal ; Musée de l’Image, Épinal

Oct 2016

ArtReview Asia Xiàn Chǎng, West Bund Art & Design 2016

West Bund Art & Design has launched a special exhibition program, ArtReview Asia Xiàn Chǎng. Situated in public areas both inside and outside the fair, the program, which takes the form of a series of single-artwork presentations, will feature works by both Asian and international artists, operating in a variety of media, including large-scale sculpture, installation, moving image and performance. Ultimately it aims to present an overview of the most urgent and cutting-edge work in the field of art.

XIÀN CHǍNG: THE SCENE (OF A CRIME, ACCIDENT, ETC); (ON) THE SPOT; (AT) THE SITE

ArtReview Asia Xiàn Chǎng is curated for West Bund Art & Design by ArtReview Asia. The curatorial concept of the program, which debuts this November, originates in the Chinese characters for ‘xiàn’ and ‘chǎng’, which together mean the scene (of a crime, accident, etc); (on) the spot; (at) the site. The artworks on show will explore how context provides a contemporary artwork with added significance or validity – and how the ‘contemporary’ aspect of contemporary art is as much about space or place as it is about time. Artists showing at ArtReview Asia Xiàn Chǎng are invited to play with notions of context, in all four dimensions of space–time, and its ability to bring about meaning, both intended and unexpected, in their work.

ArtReview Asia Xiàn Chǎng is not only an extension of the magazine’s content, creation and ideas; but is a brand-new attempt to apply and integrate its initiatives within the diverse reality of Asia.

West Bund Art & Design will also offer a special prize for ArtReview Asia Xiàn Chǎng, for which a committee of invited curators will select the best work within the program. The list of jurors, as well as the final winner will be announced in November 2016.

Xiàn Chǎng will feature the following artists :

Jun 2016

Present Participle Ⅲ

The sun of tomorrow is always brand-new. “Present Participle Ⅲ” gathers several artists that have been featured and collaborated by M Art Center, showing their latest works and progress in a natural presentation. These works are shown in a variety of media, painting, photography, sculpture, installation, woodcut, paper work, etc., directly or indirectly demonstrating the experience of being steady, awakening, exploring and going beyond oneself that every artist goes through. They are in simple words, but showing complicated messages. To artists, art creation is considered equally as breathing, as it is not only the expression of the mind and the heart, but also the process of consistent self-denial, self-fulfillment and innovation. Either as calm reflections or passionate pursuits, a temporary rest or a serious announcement, here are the recent statements that the artists want to make.

see:
http://www.m-artcenter.com/en/exposition/present_participle/6663/

Apr 2016

Dark Dreaming, in the land of earthly stars

Rêve d’obscur (‘Dark dreaming’) opens the second season organised by the Fondation d’entreprise Hermès at La Grande Place/musée du cristal Saint-Louis with a guest institution from the Lorraine region: in this case 49 Nord 6 Est-Frac Lorraine. Rêve d’obscur explores the hidden and impalpable: the distant, imaginary, mysterious realm of stars.

Part hypothesis, part fantasy, Rêve d’obscur encompasses projections of the imagination and unattainable realms. Invited by the Fondation d’entreprise Hermès to curate a season of three shows at La Grande Place/musée du cristal Saint-Louis, 49 Nord 6 Est-Frac Lorraine (the Lorraine regional art fund) draws on its own collections to create a speculative exhibition devoted to the ‘imagination and fictive potential of unknown lands, the dark side of the moon, or distant planets’.

The top floor of La Grande Place/musée du cristal Saint-Louis presents graphic works, photographs and sculptures that resonate with geographic and scientific data, to poetic effect. Maps are rendered virtually opaque (Neal Beggs), the sun is held in the crook of an arm (Barbara and Michael Leisgen), a mantra is transcribed on the trunk of a tree (Charwei Tsai): each scenario presents an intangible ‘dream of darkness’ in counterpoint to the dazzling brilliance of the lead crystal blown in the Saint-Louis workshops.

Lorraine artist Benoît Billotte has created a new work specially for this latest season of exhibitions, which also includes a ‘human library’. Steered by two artists from the French department of Moselle, with the support of 49 Nord 6 Est-Frac Lorraine, this exploratory work records artisans from workshops across the region, including the cristallerie Saint-Louis, describing their lives and their relationship to the objects they make, including some branded as ‘unmentionable’. These oral narratives bring to life the interaction between La Grande Place and its surrounding region.

Nov 2015

Nonfigurative, the movement of narration

Shanghai 21st Century Minsheng Art Museum, also known as M21, unveiled “Nonfigurative” Exhibition on November 20 to welcome its first anniversary. Showing 67 pieces of painting, video and photograph works created by 58 Chinese artists around the world, the exhibition involved creations spanning over 30 years, hence a feast of art that collects masterpieces of different periods.
According to Deputy Director Li Feng of M21, they spent nearly a year in preparing for the exhibition, including early masterpieces of established artists and new creations of young ones. In the way of expression, a nonfigurative exhibition is aimed at deconstructing the traditional narrative mode and encouraging artists to break through the constraints of form and content, thus fully exerting their imagination for creation.

As for paintings, there’s an oil painting “Camellia amid the War” showing a female soldier holding a camellia during Sino-Vietnamese War to limelight the humanity despite the warring environment. The paintings Fission, Ultimate State and The Cross, respectively created by Xu Lei, Meng Luding and Gu Liming during 1980s, not only explore abstract painting for visual expression but try different types painting materials, such as tea, rice paper and medicinal materials, thus enlarging the overall scope of painting. And among many new-media works, the video artwork “The Face” by Li Yongbin revolves around showing one’s own appearance to seek the possible forms of self-reflection.

Reports say that the exhibition will last till February 28 next year, opened free to the public.