Exhibition / Museum
Loris Gréaud [I]
19 Jun - 15 Jul 2013
The event is over
For four weeks from 19 June 2013, Loris Gréaud presents a singular and monumental work in the Forum of the Centre Pompidou. At the same time, the artist exhibits another large-scale work under the pyramid of the Louvre. Since the middle of the 2000s, Loris Gréaud's career has been marked by several ambitious projects, which move away from the usual production methods and performance of an art work. The double project at the Centre Pompidou and the Louvre illustrates this once again. In 2009, the European tour of Devils Tower Satellite, in a trailer pulled by a car, finished at the Forum of the Centre Pompidou where it was temporarily displayed, close to the place where the new artist's work will be installed. Loris Gréaud continues the story, but in a completely different way. After the astonishing film The Snorks - A Concert for Creatures, a fictional tale about beings living in the ocean depths, for which he secured the support of David Lynch, Charlotte Rampling and the Anti-Pop Consortium, Loris Gréaud launches into a new adventure. Michel Gauthier – One of the dominant features of your art is that a work is never closed in on itself, that its limits are always a little uncertain. Loris Gréaud – I've always looked to distance myself from the classic exhibition format, without the very idea of the “exhibition format” being at the heart of my work: autonomous works are shown in a precise place. It's in this sense that I was interested in the poetry of a wave of propositions and experiences spreading like a noise, a rumour, from one city to another. Covering the tracks and blurring the spatio-temporal cues by propagating the works to the four corners of the world, in the streets, in schools, galleries, and via sound waves, pirate radio shows, doctored recordings… That has been an important concern in my work. And it's from this perspective that I have sometimes been led to banish all trace or all testimony of a given work. MG – The strategy of invisibility is however not the only one. It's not the one used at the Centre Pompidou and the Louvre. LG – In fact, these two works will be highly visible, because of their size, the locations chosen and, for one of them, the way it works. They will be presented in two very exposed, very busy spaces, access to which is free and open. The “[I]” project must be visible by everyone and must be able to confront the greatest number with its immediacy. There are artists who produce works and others who, through a production and projects, sketch a pathway. The second option interests me more. I like to consider my work over the long term, through a collection of works whose creation lasts for several years. That is why the idea of exhibiting two works at the same time, in these two highly prestigious institutions, particularly interested me: it invites the public to go from one to the other and to reflect on the journey that links them. I cannot think of a work without thinking of the next one, without trying to draw the lines, the links existing between them. The space between the works is quite simply the path of thought. It spawns many great stories. I was struck by the words of the German composer Karlheinz Stockhausen on this subject: “It's like a symbol of my work for the last 45 years that what is not heard or not played is the most fascinating in my life.” The space between two works, the change in thought between them or between two exhibitions is as important as the work itself. MG – You chose the same title for the two works shown at the Centre Pompidou and the Louvre. LG - Yes: “[I]”. A title which can mean many things. The “I” of oneself. But also the verticality of the two works, particularly at the Centre Pompidou. Or the sign which, in mathematics, designates the imaginary unit in the theory of complex numbers. Or even the symbol for the strength of electric current; iodine, the chemical element in the halogen group, etc. I especially like the idea of an all-embracing title which is not pronounced, but is a sign. A sign of this double invitation which I've understood as one and the same project. MG - Opera, film, concert and nanosculpture: in less than ten years, you have worked in a wide range of fields, with a wide range of technologies and processes. LG – I am constantly looking for new ways to produce art. The field of art has no boundaries. Absolutely everything is allowed. The only rule that I follow and obey is that which I've imposed on myself: the project alone is the authority. In terms of time, cost, media… Everything must be subject to the idea and demand of the project. That is why I work with scientists, architects, musicians, film-makers, actors and philosophers. All these meetings are linked to this research, to the possibility of solving an aesthetic question. I always need new adventures to hold my attention. That is what I call these last few years, the art adventure, which is neither the choice of longevity or economy, but that which I believe in and, once again, what the work demands.
For four weeks from 19 June 2013, Loris Gréaud presents a singular and monumental work in the Forum of the Centre Pompidou. At the same time, the artist exhibits another large-scale work under the pyramid of the Louvre. Since the middle of the 2000s, Loris Gréaud's career has been marked by several ambitious projects, which move away from the usual production methods and performance of an art work. The double project at the Centre Pompidou and the Louvre illustrates this once again. In 2009, the European tour of Devils Tower Satellite, in a trailer pulled by a car, finished at the Forum of the Centre Pompidou where it was temporarily displayed, close to the place where the new artist's work will be installed. Loris Gréaud continues the story, but in a completely different way. After the astonishing film The Snorks - A Concert for Creatures, a fictional tale about beings living in the ocean depths, for which he secured the support of David Lynch, Charlotte Rampling and the Anti-Pop Consortium, Loris Gréaud launches into a new adventure.
Michel Gauthier – One of the dominant features of your art is that a work is never closed in on itself, that its limits are always a little uncertain.
Loris Gréaud – I've always looked to distance myself from the classic exhibition format, without the very idea of the “exhibition format” being at the heart of my work: autonomous works are shown in a precise place. It's in this sense that I was interested in the poetry of a wave of propositions and experiences spreading like a noise, a rumour, from one city to another. Covering the tracks and blurring the spatio-temporal cues by propagating the works to the four corners of the world, in the streets, in schools, galleries, and via sound waves, pirate radio shows, doctored recordings… That has been an important concern in my work. And it's from this perspective that I have sometimes been led to banish all trace or all testimony of a given work.
MG – The strategy of invisibility is however not the only one. It's not the one used at the Centre Pompidou and the Louvre.
LG – In fact, these two works will be highly visible, because of their size, the locations chosen and, for one of them, the way it works. They will be presented in two very exposed, very busy spaces, access to which is free and open. The “[I]” project must be visible by everyone and must be able to confront the greatest number with its immediacy. There are artists who produce works and others who, through a production and projects, sketch a pathway. The second option interests me more. I like to consider my work over the long term, through a collection of works whose creation lasts for several years. That is why the idea of exhibiting two works at the same time, in these two highly prestigious institutions, particularly interested me: it invites the public to go from one to the other and to reflect on the journey that links them. I cannot think of a work without thinking of the next one, without trying to draw the lines, the links existing between them. The space between the works is quite simply the path of thought. It spawns many great stories. I was struck by the words of the German composer Karlheinz Stockhausen on this subject: “It's like a symbol of my work for the last 45 years that what is not heard or not played is the most fascinating in my life.” The space between two works, the change in thought between them or between two exhibitions is as important as the work itself.
MG – You chose the same title for the two works shown at the Centre Pompidou and the Louvre.
LG - Yes: “[I]”. A title which can mean many things. The “I” of oneself. But also the verticality of the two works, particularly at the Centre Pompidou. Or the sign which, in mathematics, designates the imaginary unit in the theory of complex numbers. Or even the symbol for the strength of electric current; iodine, the chemical element in the halogen group, etc. I especially like the idea of an all-embracing title which is not pronounced, but is a sign. A sign of this double invitation which I've understood as one and the same project.
MG - Opera, film, concert and nanosculpture: in less than ten years, you have worked in a wide range of fields, with a wide range of technologies and processes.
LG – I am constantly looking for new ways to produce art. The field of art has no boundaries. Absolutely everything is allowed. The only rule that I follow and obey is that which I've imposed on myself: the project alone is the authority. In terms of time, cost, media… Everything must be subject to the idea and demand of the project. That is why I work with scientists, architects, musicians, film-makers, actors and philosophers. All these meetings are linked to this research, to the possibility of solving an aesthetic question. I always need new adventures to hold my attention. That is what I call these last few years, the art adventure, which is neither the choice of longevity or economy, but that which I believe in and, once again, what the work demands.
When
11am - 9pm, every days except tuesdays
