Exhibition from 21st May to 10th July 2010 Opening Thursday 20th May from 6 to 9 pm
RADICAL POSTURES
A proposal from Christine Ollier With the cooperation of Marie Doyon, Marie de Gaulejac, Dahlia Sicsic, Lilou Vidal
Sa�dane Afif, John M Armleder, Dominique Blais, Julian Dashper, Philippe Decrauzat, Sylvie Fleury, Amy Granat, Kyle Jenkins, Thom Merrick, Joris van de Moortel, Olivier Mosset, Chuck Nanney, Steven Parrino, Thomas Raat, Hugues Reip, Blair Thurman, Pierre Vadi
Project Room: Evelyne Coutas: Guests
This exhibition should be understood as a free interpretation of a network of unique influences. It is a formal association, eclectic in appearance, which will bring the spectator to an aesthetic whose foundations, resulting directly from the intellectual renewal of the sixties and seventies have become a plinth for the creative attitudes of numerous contemporary artists. This project came to us as a likeminded reflection of our own artistic connections and meetings; a sort of automatic scenography bouncing from one position to another with the pleasure of having the works seen as being carried by an intellectual and political freedom. In order to clarify the meaning of this exhibition, which light-heartedly brings together abstract paintings, drawings, images and sound and cinematographic experiences, a variety of terms should be employed, such as minimalism, modernism, influence or rock aesthetic, pop culture, �on the edge� attitude or dandyism, stage or network. These terms are, however, insufficient and in pushing this deciphering too far, we stand the risk of a disqualification of the topic.
The title Radical Postures could suggest the idea of the premise of a movement, or appear to want to catalogue the works involved, but we wish to avoid here any categorical pre-emption. In this sense, the plural in �postures� clearly indicates that the works brought together under this title come from individual artistic attitudes which should benefit from a pluralist qualification. As for the adjective �radical�, the word implies strong standpoints, outside of the norm, evoking certain types of constitutional and structural obedience (or conformism) that have left their mark indelibly on the last forty years. To understand the project, it is therefore more useful to situate it firstly as a supplementary and perhaps differential enlightenment, with regards to the history of an artistic network that has had, and still has, numerous occurrences, and secondly in parallel with a historical criticism, still becoming established.
Obviously, for a number of the artists represented, this exhibition aligns with a series of important tributes to Steven Parrino, following his untimely death in 2005, such as Born to be wild, La marque noire at the Palais de Tokyo (Paris� site of Contemporary Creation), his retrospective at the Mamco1 in Geneva, followed majestically by that of John Armleder2, as well as the tribute to Olivier Mosset with his Portrait of the Artist as a motorcyclist3, at the Magasin de Grenoble in 2009 and his triple retrospective in 2003.4
These remarkable exhibitions deliberately echo an artistic dialogue which has emerged � over more than the last thirty years � as much in Europe as in the United States, in a multiplicity of spaces, most notably in private galleries such as those of Rolfe Ricke in Cologne, Pierre Hubert in Geneva, Gilbert Brownstone in Paris, Massimo de Carlo in Milan, or Jose Freire, director of Team Gallery in New York. These first actors have seen themselves relayed by other galleries that we can attempt to reveal here, if we omit the more occasional Americans. Amongst the Europeans, we could name in France: Les Filles du Calvaire gallery, the Frank Elbaz gallery; in Germany: the Mehdi Chouakri and Schmidt Maczolleck galleries; in Switzerland: Andrea Caratsch, Evergreene and finally some more �underground� galleries: Ecart in Geneva, Reena Spaulings in New York or the recent Triple V space in Dijon. And we must be careful here not to forget certain alternative spaces, such as Circuit in Lausanne, which, in addition to their visual agendas, have produced numerous editions on behalf of these artists, following the example of Hard Hat editions alias JRP or Eric Linard Editions and again, the Galerie des Multiples in Paris which also exposes their work.
It is also necessary to pay special homage to certain institutions that, through their committed programs, have aided the international recognition of the scene to which they are unarguably linked. Of these institutions, we should name the famous �trio du consortium� from Dijon � Xavier Douroux, Frank Gautherot and Eric Troncy; Yves Aupetitalot, director of the Magasin de Grenoble; Konrad Bitterli and Roland W�spe from the Museum of Saint Gall; Marc-Olivier Wahler who directed the Can in Neuch�tel and The Swiss Institute in New York prior to his nomination at the Palais de Tokyo.
The action of this light-beam of actors, as well as that of several others, allows museums today to gather major resulting from this now-historical network. However, these collections5 cannot really do justice to the multiple artistic and musical performances, workshop practices and collaborations, beyond residual archives. In the same way, the creative dynamic brought in by the generous impulses of other actors that some of us will have had the opportunity to witness, if not partake in, will be lost with the passage of time.6
Faced with this abounding context, this exhibition will be little more than an evocation inasmuch as it seems difficult to apprehend, even improbable to definitively discern, what unites personalities as charismatic as that of Olivier Mosset, a virtually legendary contemporary figure and still highly influential, with that of Steven Parrino, whose radical attitude is now attached to the myth that has been established in these last few years, and finally that of the demigod of pop-minimalism that John M Armleder has become. It would be just as laborious to list � and even more risky to try and displace � all of the other artists that have entered into their orbit in a recurrent, or occasional, manner. However, for our objectives it is indispensable to underline here the contribution of the feminine figures involved. Amongst the most exceptional, let us not forget here the postulates to glamorous ambiguity of Sylvie Fleury, the modernist re-reading of experimental cinema of Amy Granat and her collaborations with S. Parrino and O. Mosset, the strange conceptual sculptures of Ma� Thu Perret, nor the musical collaborations of Jutta Koether with S.Parrino.
The necessity of a partial selection has therefore proved unavoidable in order to evoke this diversity of practices without falling into the trap of enumeration. From this �cautious connection�, a selection of works by Sylvie Fleury, Amy Granat, Thom Merrick, Chuck Nanney and Blair Thurman will be presented, whilst it will left to the interested visitor to refer to previously cited exhibitions for a more exhaustive vision. For all that, it will appear in this presentation, simplified by nature, that their works give form to a circle of influence at the crossroads between minimalism, a rock aesthetic and a marginal state of mind, borrowing from an iconoclastic radicalism. Beyond this, the present proposition will grant certain �openings�, in the directions that evolve from the meeting of unique figures, whose procedures rub shoulders with those of this first circle.
This type of affiliation has, of course, already been put to work during events organized by the artists themselves7, or by others following the example of the exhibitions Midnight Walkers8 by Claire Le Restif, Minimal Pop by Petra Bungert9 and the Whitney Biennial of 200610, so much that it is clear that this mind-set can be found in a great number of artists of the last three generations and that the dialogue, still very much open, has amplified as far as resonances and successive appraisals. The exhibition is conceived as a personal punctuation which allows us to avoid getting trapped in a repetitive register and to include other meetings, made in light of the first ones, such as, for example, the presence of Philippe Decrauzat, Sa�dane Afif and that, somewhat fresher, of Dominique Blais or Joris van de Moortel and Thomas Raat. However, again, rather than attempting a generational referencing, we have chosen on the one hand to please ourselves by allowing some formal regrouping, and on the other hand to select atypical personalities such as Pierre Vadi and Hugues Reip, who are difficult to imagine without a certain attitude of solitary dandy in the standpoint of their elders.
Formally, we are maliciously bringing together Chuck Nanney�s beautiful Self-portrait as a Barefoot Dandy, with that, equally heroic of Sa�dane Afif camped in front of the court of justice�s building in Nantes, whilst Dominique Blais� Platinum on Fire, or his audio drawing-fingerprints recall certain performative aspects of the work of S. Parrino. As for the record player by Hugues Reip, this work is a discreet echo of his own musical practice as well as of the strident musical performances of S. Parrino. The underlying irony of the exhibition can likewise be found in the �Minimally Plinthed� Drumkit by Joris van de Moortel and his elegant dialogue with canvases by B. Thurman, S. Parrino and O. Mosset. The projection of Amy Granat�s experimental films will mark the exhibition of their post-modernist atmosphere whilst her gothic homage to O. Mosset is a wink at the �n�o�. The same can be said for the presence of Pierre Vadi in the exhibition, an artist of a strange and black poetic whose work can be considered as a possible opening onto our topic. Finally, to widen the intention, until now centred on a Franco-Swiss and American dialectic, we are including in this d�cor two Australian artists: Kyle Jenkins and Julian Dashper, whose minimal paintings subscribe symptomatically to this circle of influence, in as much as they are at once painters and musicians like a number of the exhibition�s participants, whose taste for music, as it will be clear, is the cornerstone of their practice.
It is also for this reason that, on the sidelines of the exhibition, we have wanted to have the corollary musical stage appear directly before its neighbouring visual artist. This Project Room will allow us to discover Evelyne Coutas� stunning snapshots taken during concerts from 1976 to 82 for magazines such as Best or Rock and Folk� A selection of these photographs that the artist has reinterpreted for the occasion, in light of his practice as an artist-photographer, will highlight the style and attitudes so particular to this musical culture and will bring meaning, in its own way, to the title Radical Postures, that we have retained as a label for this proposal.
Christine Ollier Translation Cerise Thelwall
1 Born to be Wild, Museum of St-Gall, Switzerland, 28 May � 6 Sept. 2009. Curator: Konrad Bitterli. La Marque Noire / Steven Parrino R�trospective, Prospective, Palais de Tokyo, 24 May � 26 August 2007. Curator: Marc-Olivier Wahler in association with O. Mosset. Steven Parrino: R�trospective 1977-2004, Mamco, Geneva, 22 February � 7 May 2006. Curator: Fabrice Stroun. 2 Amor Vacui, horror vaccui, Mamco, Geneva, 18 October 2006 � 21 January 2006. Curator: Christian Bernard and John Armleder. 3 Portrait de l�artiste en motocycliste, Magasin, Grenoble, 11 October 2009 � 3 January 2010. Curator: Yves Aupetitalot in cooperation with the artist. Introduction of an important part of the collection of works compiled by O. Mosset, associated with the introduction of artists influenced by Mosset. 4 R�trospective Olivier Mosset: Travaux / Works: 1966 � 2003. Main Curator: Yves Aupetitalot. Mus�e Cantonal des Beaux-Arts, Lausanne. Organisers: Lionel Bouvier, O. Mosset. 22 May -24 August 2003 Kunstverein Saint-Gall, Curators: Roland W�spe, O. Mosset. 23 May � 10 August 2003 Site, Santa Fe New Mexico, USA, Curators:: O. Mosset and L. Bouvier. 13 Dec. 2003 - 7 March 2004 5 The Consortium will soon open a museum whose collection includes a number of the best works by �the gang�, whist the triple donation from Rolf Ricke (MMK in Frankfurt, the Museum in Vaduz, Lichtensteinandthe Kunstmuseum St. Gallen in Switzerland) will allow a wide audience to discover the amplitude of their influence. In other important ensembles lent or given to museums we can also name O. Mosset�s collection, partially conserved in the Museum of Neuch�tel, the Gilbert Brownstone collection as a part of the North Palm Beach Museum and the depots of the Jean Brolly collection at the Museum of Strasbourg. 6 O. Mosset has shared his Brooklyn studio with S. Parrino, B. Thurman and C. Nanney whilst A. Granat has collaborated with S. Parrino then O. Mosset for filmings, without forgetting the duets between O. Mosset and S.Parrino. 7 O. Mosset, S. Parrino, J. Armleder, A. Granat or Ma� Thu Perret have organised a number of exhibitions, programmes, films and concerts. 8 Midnight Walkers, Credac, Ivry sur Seine, 3 February � 9 April 2006. Curator : C. Le Restif. 9 Minimal Pop, travelling exhibition with several occurrences in France, Belgium, the Netherlands and Australia. Curator : Petra Bungert. 10 Whitney Biennial, Day for Night, Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, 2 March � 28 May 2006
