In collaboration with

PRESS KIT 01.04.2015

INBOX

A CONTEMPORARY ART INSTALLATION BY ENKI BILAL, ON SHOW DURING THE VENICE BIENNALE - FROM 8 MAY TO 2 AUGUST 2015 -

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Venice – Enki Bilal has entered a new phase in his work as an artist. With the support of Artcurial he will exhibit for the first time during the Contemporary Art Biennale in Venice. The exhibition will take place between 8 May and 2 August 2015. At the Fondazione Giorgio Cini, he will unveil a new installation : Inbox. This is a bold artistic project designed specially for this international event that will be freely accessible to the public. With this installation, Enki Bilal plays with spectators’ senses and their perception of reality. He pushes his artistic approach to a new level, continuing to deconstruct visual imagery. He offers a new experience : to become aware of the disturbing but captivating pleasure of obscurity.

« We are delighted to be supporting this innovative project, conceived by a great artist. It is important for Artcurial that we assert our strong commitment to contemporary creation and culture, at an international artistic event such as the Venice Biennale. The exhibition will be freely accessible to the public who will be able to learn more about this work that transcends the boundaries between different art forms. » explained François Tajan and Francis Briest, Co-Chairmen at Artcurial.

Eric Leroy, Comic Strip expert at Artcurial, commented on the initiative of the project : « Enki Bilal at the Venice Biennale confirms the international stature of his work and the reach of his reputation beyond our shores. He has surprised us once more with this installation, and demonstrated he can have an impact in all mediums. »

Enki Bilal will take up residence in the heart of the convent attached to the famous church of San Giorgio Maggiore, opposite the Piazza San Marco. His show is part of a group of exhibitions hosted by the Fondazione Giorgio Cini during the Venice Biennale, that includes artists such as Magdalena Abakanowicz, Matthias Schaller, Hiroshi Sugimoto and Liu Xiaodong.

In an enclosed, minimalist and darkened space, the spectator stands alone in front of a large screen displaying a continuous stream of indistinguishable colour images. This creates an uncertainty designed to mesmerize and unsettle the viewer. After this initial hypnotic phase, the visitor is faced with a diptych that never completely reveals itself, subjected to alternating effects of light and silence, emphasising the relationship between the discontinuity of light and the sensuality of the body. This is where we find the dark and passionate romanticism that characterises the work of Enki Bilal. The artist concentrates on the fragility and uncertainty of our visual memory, on the contradictions and the material nature of the images. He draws on the need to focus on the present moment and to rely on one’s sensibility and intuition. In this way the spectator is able to immerse himself totally in the work, in a poetry that is both physical and mental.

« It is a play on the senses, and the withdrawal of these senses, but also on our assessment of reality. The visitor experiences the frustrations of his visual memory, faced with the impossibility of focusing on a conventionally hung piece of work to take a particular viewpoint. Then, he must move on and leave the box, the after images still haunting his retina. This is an ephemeral and solitary experience. » suggests Enki Bilal.

The exhibition Inbox by Enki Bilal is to be organised in collaboration with the Fondazione Giorgio Cini.

Sketch of the the installation Inbox for the Giorgio Cini, Foundation during the contemporary art Biennale in Venice, Enki Bilal

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ENKI BILAL, ART IN ALL ITS FORMS

The path of Enki Bilal’s career has been built on daring and independence : draughtsman, filmmaker, painter, costume and set designer for contemporary opera and the ballet Romeo and Juliet by Serge Prokofiev. His work is based on genuine aesthetic requirements that are visionary and have evolved over time, not the pseudo-desire of an anecdotal and sterile modernity that can only ever be a compromise.

An artist full of passion, he likes to convey emotion, and to share something with the reader and the spectator. The essential element is in the gesture and the revelation : the art becomes a form of self-portrait, but one that we can only discover piecemeal, an introspection on the elements in his work, the relationship he has with reality and his way of understanding the world, a eloquent reflection that embraces his work.

Through the mediums of comic strip, painting and cinema, personal elements rise to the surface. His work bears the mark of both a culture and a sensibility, an interaction between the unconscious and the conscious, a reflection in the shadows entwined with childhood memories. The enemy, and the beauty in that, where least expected. It is creation that surpasses the graphic legacy and upsets the historical framework, that breaches traditional forms and codes. The integrity of the drawing remains, however. A presence manifests itself, out of the work and the subject, from the subjectivity of the artist and the sensibility of the spectator : to look at things head on, to challenge our anxiety and fears. A guideline that relates to history and to ambiance, and remains attached to a strange, fantastical universe.

With each comic book, Enki Bilal revives his artistic expression and embraces a style that is freer and more spontaneous. The space expands while colour remains the centre of gravity, an essential raw material, a natural element that breathes life and carries an emotional force, accompanied by dynamic gestures that reveal the intensity of the moment. The composition is related to the range and rhythm of the colours, a deliberately restrained palette dominated by the cold tones and harmonies that characterise his work : gradients, contrasting and complementing. Lines and surfaces intertwine, without spatial discontinuity, entanglement or unnecessary agitation. The Enki Bilal © Vanessa Franklin interaction of colours gives the drawing its depth and coherence, in a space where the contours often remain undefined.

This is a visual immersion, and the artwork becomes a colour field and a force field, shaped by the fusion of the characters and the space, with large areas scarcely troubled by small touches of light and warm tones, and often whole frames dominated by the incisive trait of Indian ink. But the line itself is not that important : it is trapped and overwhelmed. The drawing is a rhetorical element that assembles and juxtaposes opposites, with sensuality, unable to flourish in the banal, conceived in the union of polar opposites, pleasure and pain. Light cannot exist by itself, but requires darkness to accentuate its luminosity, which leads us to those vital things that must collide for creation to occur: love and its absence, a desire for eternity and ephemeral life, reality and fantasy. Conflict is the rule and harmony the exception. Desire, not linked to any objective reality, cannot be innocent. No gentle illusion, it is inevitably destructive. Passion contains everything, love and hate are one.

Enki Bilal doesn’t separate art from life, he paints the feelings that pass before his eyes, without idealism or contemplation, an urgency forcing the decision. A conscious intention that enables the images to express the marriage of opposite entities. Art often filled with tension, stormy, where tragedy can be read between the lines. He has endorsed the statement by Nietzsche, « artists value highly the respect bestowed on passions ». He works using instinct, with an energy and spirit that reflect his commitment and lucidity, and the battle of a creator with his work. The beauty that he loves and represents is not superficial : it is baroque, dark and sensual.

Heureux l’artiste que le désir déchire. (Happy the artist torn apart by desire) Enki Bilal is himself, alone.

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KEY DATES IN THE CAREER OF ENKI BILAL

1951 : Enki Bilal was born in Belgrade, Yugoslavia. 1960 : Moved to Paris. 1972 : Following a short period in the Fine Arts, Enki Bilal published his first story, Le Bol maudit, in the magazine Pilote. 1975 : Publication of his first comic book, La Croisière des Oubliés, for a script by Pierre Christin. 1980 : First personal series, in Pilote, La Foire aux Immortels. The second part, La femme Piège, appeared in a comic book in 1986. 1982 : Enki Bilal painted special effects on glass for the sets on La Vie est un roman, a film by Alain Resnais. 1983 : With Partie de Chasse, Enki Bilal and Pierre Christin demonstate clearly that the comic strip, politics, news and fiction are not incompatible. A genre is born. 1987 : Grand Prix in the XIVe Salon international de la Bande dessinée d’Angoulême. 1988 : Exhibition at the Palais de Tokyo, with Josef Koudelka and Guy Pellaert. 1989 : Enki Bilal’s first film, Bunker Palace Hôtel, starring Jean-Louis Trintignant and Carole Bouquet. 1990 : Set and costume design for O.P.A. Mia, a contemporary opera by Denis Levaillant (Avignon Festival). 1993 : The last part of the Nikopol trilogy, Froid Equateur, chosen as book of the year, all genres together, by the magazine of Bernard Pivot, Lire. A first in the history of publishing. 1994 : Exhibition and publication of Bleu Sang (Galerie et Éditions Christian Desbois). 1997 : French release of Tykho Moon, the second feature film by Enki Bilal, with leading roles played by Julie Deply, Marie Laforêt, Michel Piccoli, Jean-Louis Trintignant, Johan Leysen, Richard Bohringer, Yann Collette… 1998 : The start of a new trilogy with Le Sommeil du Monstre. 2001 : Exhibition enkibilalandeuxmilleun at the Bibliothèque historique de la ville de Paris. 2004 : Release of the film Immortel ad vitam, the 3rd feature film by Bilal with lead roles by Linda Hardy, Thomas Kretschumann, Charlotte Rampling… 2005 – 2006 : Exhibition in New Delhi followed by Calcutta of enkibilalinindia 2006-2007 : Second and final parts of Tétralogie du Monstre : Rendez-vous à Parie and Quatre ?- Dernier Acte. 2007 : Exhibition in Bangkok. 2009 : Exhibition in Istanbul, Publication of the comic book Animal’z. 2009 : Exhibition of Animal’z at Artcurial in Paris. 2011 : Adaptation and staging of Suspection, play by Fabienne Renault, with Evelyne Bouix and Jean-Louis Trintignant. 2012 : Exhibition Oxymore – Last Paintings in New York (Cultural Services of the French Embassy), Beijing (Hadrien De Montferrand Gallery), Berlin (Kunsthaus Lempertz) and Paris (Artcurial). 2013 : Exhibition Les Fantômes du Louvre – Enki Bilal at the Musée du Louvre, of twenty photographs of famous paintings with added drawings of phantoms. 2013 : Chess-boxing contest at Artcurial in Paris. 2014 : Publication of the third volume of the Coup de Sang trilogy, titled La couleur de l’air. 2014 – 2015 : Exhibition Oxymore and more at the Hôtel des Arts in Toulon. 2015 : Exhibition Inbox at the Fondazione Giorgio Cini, during the contemporary art Biennale in Venice

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ARTCURIAL’S COMMITMENT TO CULTURE

For over ten years, Artcurial, housing one of the most important art bookshops in Paris, has placed culture at the heart of its activities. In line with this, the leading French auction house has enjoyed, since 2008, the support of a cultural advisor, Serge Lemoine, an art historian with an international reputation, and former president of the Musée d’Orsay.

Artcurial is a unique place for cultural exchange and meetings where numerous conferences and signings are organised. The auction house organises public exhibitions at the headquarters on the Rond-point des Champs-Elysées, at other venues and in their European offices : - In Paris : Mickey dans tous ses états en 2006, Pierre Culliford dit Peyo, la vie et l’œuvre d’un conteur merveilleux in 2011… - Other venues: Small Medium Large in 2011 and Hiquily au Donjon de Vez in 2014 - In the European offices : Jean-Michel Basquiat in 2014 in Brussels, Marc Chagall in 2015 in Milan…

In conjunction with these events, the auction house supports French and international contemporary artistic creation. It partners HyAM (Mediterranean artists award), Espace Musées (Exhibition space at the Paris Charles de Gaulle airport) and the ADIAF – Prix Marcel Duchamp, for which it hosted the exhibitions for the winners Cyprien Gaillard (2011) and Laurent Grasso (2013) in Venice during the Biennale.

This year, Artcurial decided to support a major project that would be accessible to a wider audience : the installation Inbox by Enki Bilal at the Fondazione Giorgio Cini (from 8 May to 2 August 2015). The close ties between the artist and the auction house, facilitated by Eric Leroy, Artcurial’s Comic Strip expert, have made this a natural collaboration. If it began with the Comic Strip (Artcurial holds the world record for a work by Enki Bilal at auction : La tétralogie du monstre, 2006, acrylic, sold for 174 481 €, on 29 March 2009), the adventure continued into other areas of artistic expression, providing further confirmation of the artist’s place in the contemporary art scene.

Over the years, many cultural events have been organised by Artcurial in conjunction with Enki Bilal, in France and abroad : - In 2009, the exhibition Animal’z assembled 350 original drawings from the eponymous comic book in Paris, - In 2012, a group of 15 canvases Oxymore, were the subject of an international exhibition (New York, Beijing, Berlin) prior to an auction sale in Paris, - In 2013, the first Chessboxing contest, a game invented by Enki Bilal in 1986, combining boxing and chess, took place at Artcurial in Paris.

Enki Bilal's wor kshop in Paris

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INFORMATION Exhibition « Inbox – Enki Bilal » Created with the support of Artcurial, And in collaboration with the Fondazione Giorgio Cini

Free entry

From 8 May 2015 to 2 August 2015 From Monday to Sunday between 11.00 and 19.00 (closed on Wednesday)

Fondazione Giorgio Cini Isola di San Giorgio Maggiore 30124 Venezia - Italia

+39 041 271 0229 www.artcurial.com www.cini.it

About Artcurial – Founded in 2002, Artcurial confirmed its position as leading French auction house in 2014. It covers all the major specialist fields, from the Fine Arts and Decorative Arts to collectibles. The auction house achieved an overall sales total of 192 M€ in 2014, representing an increase of over 50% in 3 years. With a strong international bias, Artcurial maintains its presence abroad with offices in Milan, Brussels and Vienna, representatives in Beijing and Tel Aviv, and twice yearly exhibitions in New York.

In 2014, the Comic Strip department realised close to 12 M€ in sales, up 61% on 2013. A success achieved through collaboration with contemporary artists, including solo exhibitions, and through bringing together important pieces for major sales, including the fly leaves of the Tintin comic books by Hergé in May 2014, that sold for 2.7 M€, a world record for a comic strip at auction.

About the Fondazione Giorgio Cini – The Giorgio Cini Foundation is a non- profit cultural institution based in Venice, Italy. It was constituted by Vittorio Cini, in memory of his son Giorgio, with the aim of restoring the Island of San Press Contact : Giorgio Maggiore (devastated after 100 years of military occupation) and of Flint PR creating an international cultural centre that would re-integrate the Island into Rosie Marsh the life of Venice. The creation of the Foundation was one of the most +44 7759 228 530 considerable private initiatives of the 20th century. The importance of this [email protected] undertaking was borne out by the initial investment committed to rehabilitate the Island and by the many events the Foundation has promoted or hosted since. Artcurial Contact : Jean Baptiste Duquesne The Giorgio Cini Foundation hosts the International Center for the Study of Press relations Italian Culture, named after Vittore Branca. Opened in 2010, the Branca + 33 1 42 99 20 76 Center is a new residential resource for humanities' studies where young [email protected] researchers and expert scholars can stay while working in the Foundation and Venetian libraries. www.artcurial.com

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