Communication Department PRESS PACK PRIX MARCELDUCHAMP 2005 CLAUDE CLOSKY: «MANÈGE» 17 MAY - 31 JULY 2006 PRIX MARCEL DUCHAMP 2005 CLAUDE CLOSKY : «MANÈGE» 17 MAY - 31 JULY 2006 ESPACE 315, LEVEL 1

Direction de la communication CONTENTS 75191 Cedex 04 director Roya Nasser 1. PRESENTATION OF THE ARTIST’S PROJECT page 3 press offficer Dorothée Mireux 2. PLAN OF THE EXHIBITION page 6 telephone 00 33 (0)1 44 78 46 60 fax 3. CATALOGUES page 7 00 33 (0)1 44 78 13 02 e-mail [email protected] 4. BIOGRAPHY page 9

Adiaf www.adiaf.com 5. VISUALS AVAILABLE FOR PRESS USE page 10 press officer Caroline Crabbe telephone 6. THE MARCEL DUCHAMP PRIZE page 11 00 33 (0) 6 10 19 36 31 e-mail [email protected] curator Jean-Pierre Bordaz, Musée national d’art moderne, service des collections contemporaines page 3

Claude Closky is laureate of the fifth edition of the Marcel Duchamp Prize in the wake of Thomas Hirschhorn, Dominique Gonzalez-Foerster, Mathieu Mercier and Carole Benzaken. The has commissioned him to create a new work, which will be on show between 17 May and 31 July in the Espace 315.

Claude Closky was awarded the prize by the jury for “showing great artistic maturity in his implementation of this universal language”. Very present on the Parisian scene where he is represented by the Galerie Laurent Godin, he has participated in more than 200 international exhibitions and his work is exhibited in Germany, Switzerland, Italy, the States and Japan.

The artist is not unknown at the Centre Pompidou as it is he who designed the entrance ticket as well as the wallpaper in the offices. page 4

1. PRESENTATION OF THE ARTIST’S PROJECT

Claude Closky created Manège specifically for this exhibition in Espace 315. The work is interpreted below by , art critic and author of an article in the exhibition catalogue (information below in 3. CATALOGUES).

MANÈGE

Marie Muracciole, January 2006

(…) Time is what happens, and even what makes it all happen. Henri Bergson.

In the empty, rectangular Espace 315 are sixteen flat screens placed at eye level at regular intervals, each displaying the monochrome blue colour signifying a lack of signal. On each of these screens in turn appears a graphic, or photographic moving image. There are, in fact, thousands of images, taken from the internet which, in the space of 4 to 20 seconds, illustrate the unfolding of an action, a movement or the conclusion of a sequence of actions. The movements are decomposed into freeze frames which represent certain stages of an abstract duration. The image definition is poor; the subject and treatment of the image is unappealing and the way in which they follow on from each other is random. Each image sequence is accompanied by a jingle, an instrumental sound made up of a single measure of ordinary contemporary entertainment, looped. Considerable in number but too brief to be recognizable they merely leave an air of familiarity. The combination of sound and image is arbitrary, but always synchronised. The images are both temporally connected (by following directly on from each other) and spatially distinct (by confining themselves to a screen each time they appear). Space separates them and time links them together.

Space really does separate them as the screens are placed far apart. Occupied ground is kept strictly to a minimum, with only one screen working at a time. Only the flow of the represented movements, and the continuousness of the motions in the images and the progression from one screen to the next maintains the sporadic visibility of Manège. The leap from screen to screen takes place clockwise, giving an impression of changing gear. It is progress without conclusion as each time the action is completed from beginning to end, it moves on to the next in synchronisation with the music, and – round it goes. There is no variation. Chance may offer a repeat of the sequences, but they seem to go on interminably, never reaching the indiscernible limits.

This circular movement from one screen to the next gives no feeling of spilling out into another space; we are not made aware of the gap between the screens because the clean cut between the images creates a constant movement: from beginning to end the images appear and disappear without a break. By the time a new sequence begins, the preceding one has ended. The viewers follow the movement from screen to screen with their eyes, and their feet automatically follow; otherwise they stay where they are and turn on the spot. They are guided just as much by the rhythm of the soundtrack emitting from each active screen. The sound surrounds and fills the space, parodying the surround sound of cinema. It circulates around the room signalling the sporadic changes of the screens from ‘on’ to ‘off’.

The screens are flat: they look more like pictures on a wall than video monitors; they are not even windows, far from it, nor reflective surfaces. They transmit what they receive. They are the extreme point, the final destination of images broadcast from a digital news channel providing them with ready-made elements; these screens are vulgar and commercial, even though they are a familiar sight nowadays on museum walls. They are also passive. They offer the warmth of the active image when ‘on’ and the cold weightlessness of the screen when ‘off’ – the blue of the absence of the video signal is similar to a blue incrustation, that happens to resemble the IKB chosen by Klein to describe the void, or the colour of a bright blue sky.

Manège links progress (sequences of images and that clockwork movement that carries them along), with repetition (the different rhythms of the jingles resounding in the space). The distribution of movement in each graphic or photographic animation scans the passage of “solid” (as in homogenous), one dimensional time. Manège is concerned with that time, in the same way that it is concerned with not filling the space, illustrated by the sending of the sequences into orbit and the fifteen screens that remain inert for every one that comes to life. The artist’s principal intervention is not in the quantity of constructed sequences, but in the minimised timing of their appearance. page 5

Manège makes heads spin, and transforms the picture rails into a gyratory flashing giving a guided vision of the exhibition like working out. As if in a moving train, we become the axis of a constant displacement. Where are we heading? These few snippets of soundtrack and visuals are shifted and reassembled without any aesthetic or profound aim; mixing them is not intended to offer them redemption through art. Their passage in this vast space cuts them off from their use and significance; but Closky does not give them meaning, nor does he reveal them for our discernment: his aim is not transfiguration.

Manège is a “reprise” or rerun of visual and sound compositions. In French, “reprise” in equestrian terms also refers to the moment of dressage and perfectionism, where all is done in step, the controlling of movements within the manege. Rerun here does not signify repeat. Manège takes elements, the profusion and banality of which are pledged to our indifference, and singles them out. They are isolated and enlarged in a setting giving them a new lease of life and a change of tempo. This adjustment speaks about the way in which these images and sounds are presented in the installation and not about the adjustments of the images and sounds themselves. Il relates to certain drawings in which he checks off all the squares in an exercise book, counts the hours of a day, the days in a life, etc. Closky turns wasted time into a frenetic activity, clocked by him: “Some of my works are the subject of the time it took to make them.” In Manège the time spent is automated and constant, it is no longer the result of a work as its duration shows neither the process nor the trace.

Manège turns its reruns into the object and medium of a processing of time and its issues, starting with the time passed during the exhibition. The installation brings about the rhythm and adjustment of intensity which define one form of time: time to be conquered, over which it would be good to have control, and which Manège seems to generate without interruption. Taking, making, passing and wasting time, the mechanics of the (full) use of time are displayed and dissipated here. The question is there on the screens and in the voids between, whether we should spend so much time in watching it go by. Does that alter its essence? Because if, for most of the time, it is time that passes, or makes everything pass (or nearly everything), time is (also) what happens, and even what makes it all happen. page 6

2. PLAN OF THE EXHIBITION

Claude Closky, Manège, 2005-2006 installation video, PC, répartiteur audio video, 16 moniteurs stéréo LCD 76 cm page 7

Editions du Centre Pompidou 3. CATALOGUES Attachée de presse Evelyne Poret téléphone ADIAF/PRIX MARCEL DUCHAMP 2005 00 33 (0)1 44 78 15 98 Un-Deux ... Quatre EDITIONS e-mail Format: 22 x 27 cm, 48 pages, [email protected] Bilingual version: French/English Price: 20 euros

As emphasized by Alfred Pacquement in his preface to the Prix Marcel Duchamp 2005 catalogue: “Claude Closky is an extremely inventive artist who uses all sorts of different mediums with which to express himself: internet sites, image projection, books, paintings, drawings, collages, wallpapers, electronic signboards, etc. For him, everything and anything can be used for his interpretation of the modern world. Closky makes lists and montages, strings together words and symbols, manipulates numbers, he uses anything with which the media inundates us daily. He twists it into absurdity and contradiction, showing us in his own way how any kind of information can be manipulated. Behind his apparent light heartedness, Closky’s work is loaded with meaning and is continually reinvented with great subtlety as illustrated by his MANEGE installation at the Centre Pompidou”.

CLAUDE CLOSKY Collection Espace 315 Directed by: Françoise Bertaux Editions du Centre Pompidou Format: 17 x 22 cm, 80 pages Bilingual version French/English Price: 18 euros Authors: Jean-Pierre Bordaz Marie Muracciole François Piron Katty Siegel and Paul Mattick page 8

The Spectacle of the World In Roundabout, the set-up professes a certain neutrality. The thousands of digital images conceived by Closky attest to what is shown but are revealed in an order that is partial. They are distributed over LCD screens, activated one by one, forming a staggered whole. And the intervals between each manifestation, marked as these are by the diversion of the blue screens, certainly do not add to our perception. Everything is presented so as to be seen separately and noticed in an apparent order. The white cube of the exhibition room serves to remind us of the place of art, and to justify the existence of these screens placed at intervals of 4 metres, each at a height of 1.55 metres. What is this show we are watching, which consists of such a very diverse, timed succession of images, motifs, plans, constructions and calculations? Paradoxically, these specific, fleeting visions inspire a sensation of openness to new horizons. The multiple, infinite operations effected by Closky are expressed with limpidity, as if condensed and reduced to the essence. The sketches acted out by little figures are the result of simple, often obvious interventions. But this deliberate minimalism expresses a greater complexity, like those attitudes, postures and gestures that we learn and which become part of quotidian banality and its determinisms. In other images, simple principles of calculation are proposed: an addition, a subtraction – operations confronted with time, with the instant. Space is elaborated out of a play of forms – a Lego brick, for example – and is constantly recomposed, thereby revealing its own limits.

That’s Entertainment Roundabout is festive in its set-up and in the diversity of images and sounds that compose it. This festive mood is expressed in a kind of great parade dedicated to the contemporary world, marked by a catapulting of signs and information. The “Great Parade” organised at the Stedeljik, Amsterdam, in 1986 by Eddy de Wilde, showed the joyous manifestation of painting and its many forms of appearance. Roundabout immediately joins the dynamism and even the vitality of a visual and graphic style that conflates contemporary artistic practices and their experiments with hybridity. The logic of accumulation, material thrown onto a surface, and the many visual manipulations here, all constitute an indirect homage to a recognised history of forms that are close to the real. (…) The speed at which all these short sketches appear and disappear suggests the spectacle of the world, in a presentation that is both ironic and coolly detached. Here, Closky is affirming the role of the artist – which, these days, is constantly being re-evaluated – and his relation to what is around him. In Roundabout, the habits and social expressions of the age bounce off each other with a joyful power and vitality.

The Instant, the Measure of Time Roundabout marks out the time in which each visual proposition passes. It gives the measure of time. The spectator experiences language and sound through a sequence divided up into units lasting between 4 and 20 seconds. In a short moment, a graphic or photographic image or a signal is deployed in the fugitive appearance of a television test screen. Signs continually appear but never inform. The artist plays with our instinct, our faculty for discovery and improvisation, in order to lead us toward logical deductions that are perpetually renewed. Likewise, the most frequently played musical scores, jingles and refrains, the weapons of any advertising campaign, only partially offer the effect of recognition that is induced in the brief time of their passing. Roundabout requires a particular time of perception because of the succession of the various operations: geometrical figures being recomposed and materials whose nature it is to assemble form constructions, letters and figures doomed to multiplicity, illustrating mental operations and gestures from everyday life sketched out in a minimal process. The perception of the instant is introduced only by the instantaneous character of the images sampled on the Internet: the animated figures mechanically replay known scenes while various sketches are deliberately repeated in a register of emphatic ordinariness. (…)These actions constitute a measure of time because of the short duration of their enactment and through the evocation of a process in process. (…)Like that of Jenny Holzer, Claude Closky’s language, while designed to speak to the widest possible audience, is deployed in an infinite and equivocal space-time. When not occupied by signs, the LCD screens do not go out but take on a permanent blue colour made eternal by Yves Klein.

Jean-Pierre Bordaz Translation by Charles Penwarden page 9

4. BIOGRAPHY

Claude Closky lives in Paris and works with different media: video, photography, internet, drawing, etc.

He has exhibited at the Arnolfini Gallery, Bristol (2002), at the Bass Museum, Miami (2005), at the Bunkamura Gallery, Tokyo (1999), at the Busan MoMA, Korea (2005), at the Castello di Rivoli (1996), at the CCA, Glasgow (1996), at the CCAC, San Francisco (2001), at the CGC, Geneva (1994), at the Centre Pompidou, Paris (1993, 2000, 2001, 2002), at the Cartier Foundation, Paris (2001), at the Caixa in Lleida (2004), Tarragona, Girona (2005), the Miró Foundation in (2004), at Olivetti, Rome (2002), at the Fotomuseum, Winterthur (2001), at the GEM, The Hague and at Location One, New York (2003), at the Ludwig Museum, Cologne (2002, 2005), at the Migros Museum, Zürich (2002), at the Moderna Galerija, (2000), at the Musée d'Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris (ARC) (1992, 2000), at the Musée d'Art Moderne Grand-Duc Jean, Luxembourg (2002), at the Museum of , Herzliya (1997), at the Oca, Sao Paulo (2001), at the Schirn Kunsthalle, Frankfurt (2002), at the Tate Liverpool (2001, 2003), etc. He has participated in Biennales in (1995), Rotterdam (photo, 2003), Sharjah (2005), Sydney (1996), Taïwan (2000), Valence (2001), (2001), etc.

He is represented by the following galleries: Mehdi Chouakri, - Laurent Godin, Paris - Edward Mitterrand, Geneva - Nicola-Fornello, Prato, .

Three books have been published dedicated to his work: 'Hello and welcome', by Carole Boulbès, Lynne Cooke, Alexandra Midal, Frédéric Paul, François Piron, David Platzker and Eric Troncy, copublished by Domaine de Kerguéhennec and Le Parvis, January 2004 'Claude Closky' by Frédéric Paul, éditions Hazan, Paris 1999. 'Claude Closky - Magazines' by , Purple Books, Paris 1998.

Further information is available on www.sittes.net and http://closky.online.fr page 10

5. VISUALS AVAILABLE FOR THE PRESS

Claude Closky, '100%', 2004, stainless steel poles, two color flags, dimensions variable. Installation view "D'un pas... l'autre", Jinan (China) Courtesy galerie Laurent Godin, Paris. photos © Joséphine de Bère

Claude Closky, 'Journal', 2005, video installation, stereo, 24 minutes, dimensions variable. Exhibition view at the GEM, The Hague, 2005 Courtesy galerie Laurent Godin, Paris. Photo © Joséphine de Bère.

Claude Closky, '+1', 2000, video projector, computer, permanent Internet connexion (www.sittes.net/indice), table, 4 x 5,33 x 7 m. Installation view, Rotterdam Biennial (March 14 - April 21 2003) Courtesy Galerie Laurent Godin, Paris. Photo © Joséphine de Bère.

Claude Closky, 'Television', 2003, steel, grey fabric, 19 monitors, 6 computers, 6 mice, internet connection (www.location1.org/closky), channel guide (58 pages letter US), h: 111" ; w: 178"; d: 84" Exhibition view, Location One, New York Courtesy galerie Laurent Godin, Paris. photo © Joséphine de Bère

Claude Closky, 'U', 2002-2004, video installation, computer, 2 projectors, 4 x 8 x 8 m, loop. Installation view, Fundatió Joan Miró, Barcelona. Courtesy galerie Laurent Godin, Paris. Photo © Joséphine de Bère

Claude Closky, ' Clean Dishes', 1996, black ballpoint pen on paper, 32 x 24 cm. Courtesy galerie Laurent Godin, Paris.

Claude Closky, World News, 2002, 16/9 plasma monitor, computer, blue adhesive, silent Exposition view: Jennifer Flay Gallery, Paris Photo: Joséphine de Bère

Claude Closky, 'You Want You Have', 2004, video installation, PC, two stereo 61" plasma monitors, dimensions variable.

Claude Closky, 'Before and After', 2004 diptychs, collage, 2 x 80x60 cm each. Exhibition view Mehdi Chouakri Gallery. Courtesy galerie Mehdi Chouakri, Berlin. Photo © Joséphine de Bère page 11

6. THE MARCEL DUCHAMP PRIZE

www.adiaf.com

2005 EDITION

NOMINATED ARTISTS KADER ATTIA , born in Dugny in 1970 and lives in Paris - Multimedia GILLES BARBIER, born in Vanuatu in 1965 and lives in - Drawings, installations OLIVIER BLANCKART, born in Brussels in 1959 and lives in Paris - Installations, photographs CLAUDE CLOSKY, born in Paris in 1963 and lives in Paris – Multimedia

JURY ALFRED PACQUEMENT, Chairman of the Jury and Director of the Musée National d’Art Moderne, Centre Pompidou MARIA DE CORRAL (Spain), Director of the Venise Biennale GILLES FUCHS (), President of the ADIAF, Collector ANTON HERBERT (Belgium), Collector JACQUELINE MATISSE MONNIER (France), Artist HANS ULRICH OBRIST (Switzerland), Exhibition Curator ALAIN-DOMINIQUE PERRIN (France), President of the Jeu de Paume museum, Collector

A COLLECTORS’ PRIZE The MARCEL DUCHAMP PRIZE was created in 2000 by the ADIAF, (Association for the international distribution of French art), the largest group of private and amateur contemporary art collectors in France, as an initiative, amongst others, for promoting French artists internationally. Its aim is to encourage all new art forms that stimulate contemporary creation, and to give recognition to a promising artist living in France and working in the domain of the visual and plastic arts.

This collectors’ prize was set up in collaboration with the CENTRE POMPIDOU, the Musée National d’Art Moderne and, since 2005, the FIAC, the International Contemporary Art Fair in Paris.

The artists nominated for the MARCEL DUCHAMP PRIZE are unusually selected by a committee of collectors and art amateurs selected by the ADIAF. This international jury is composed of experts such as curators, critics and French and international collectors, whose advice is valued highly in the domain of contemporary art.

The MARCEL DUCHAMP PRIZE is awarded to an artist resident in France. • It encompasses all means of expression in all the visual arts such as painting, sculpture, installation, photography and video. • The nominees benefit from a collective exhibition under the aegis of the FIAC. • The winner is awarded 35,000 euros. • The winner is then invited by the Muséé National d’Art Moderne to create a new work to be exhibited for two months at the Centre Pompidou. • The ADIAF compiles a catalogue dedicated to the winner and nominees. • The Centre Pompidou publishes a catalogue dedicated to the winner. page 12

SUPPORT FROM COMPANIES ENGAGED IN ART SPONSORSHIP

LOMBARD ODIER DARIER HENTSCH www.lodh.com

Founded in 1796, Lombard Odier Darier Hentsch & Co. is one of the oldest established private bankers in Geneva, and one of the largest in Switzerland and in Europe. The Group plays a major role in international finance and offers a wide range of advice to a private clientele in matters of heritage, financial products and specialised services. The associates of Lombard Odier Darier Hentsch & Co have always been engaged with a number of development projects in the domain of culture, education and social responsibility. Aware of the importance of leaving future generations with a renewed and enriched heritage, they are particularly keen to support the artists of tomorrow. The Marcel Duchamp Prize subscribes to these principles by encouraging creativity amongst the young in France, and offering its talented artists the possibility of recognition on an international scale. And so Lombard Odier Darier Hentsch & Co is associated with awarding the MARCEL DUCHAMP PRIZE in Paris, organised jointly since the year 2000 between the ADIAF and the Centre Pompidou, Musée National d’Art Moderne.

LA FONDATION EISAI - Art to bring people together www.eisai-fondation.org

Since 2002 the Fondation Eisai has been organising unusual events to help improve the quality of life for the elderly and their families, and in establishing a place for the elderly in society and links between the generations. The foundation likes to place an emphasis on art in its organised events, being a particularly efficient way of bringing people together. This was made evident in its “La Force de l’Esprit” (“Strength of Mind”) operation which united 40 artists to exhibit and sell their works to raise money for Alzheimer research. It was therefore a natural step for the Eisai Foundation to become associated with the ADIAF, whose own vocation is in supporting contemporary artists. The partnership will launch an operation in 2006 and 2007 that mixes contemporary art with an intergenerational link on the theme of influences…making art the meeting point between two major life issues.

TAJAN www.tajan.com

“From the very start Tajan supported the collectors in their initiative in setting up the MARCEL DUCHAMP PRIZE and its aim of promoting creativity in France. As a precursor to creating an awareness of the wealth of contemporary art in our country, attested by exhibitions planned for 2006 such as “Notre Histoire…” at the Palais de Tokyo, or “la Force de l’Art” at the Grand Palais, the MARCEL DUCHAMP PRIZE singles out the artists bursting onto the international art scene. TAJAN, the only auction house to make the French market its priority, is delighted with the choice of Claude Closky as laureate of the 2005MARCEL DUCHAMP PRIZE. In two years its turnover of contemporary art has increased five-fold and TAJAN has now become a major venue for French and international collectors”. Rodica Seward – Chairwoman and Managing Director of TAJAN SA

INLEX CONSEIL - All intellectual property www.inlex.com

Inlex Conseil is one of the main French offices dealing with protection rights in intellectual property (brands, designs, models, technological inventions, copyright, unfair trading, etc.).

Dynamic and committed, Inlex Conseil has been engaged, since it was founded eleven years ago, in international and interdisciplinary action aimed at promoting and protecting artistic and creative enterprises of any size, nationality or field of activity.

Inlex Conseil approved of the genuinely united approach shown by the ADIAF towards the values associated with art to which we adhere and it is for that reason that we wished to become associated with the MARCEL DUCHAMP PRIZE. page 13

AXENSE - a brand of originality www.axense.fr

The Axense Agency was created from a wish to “communicate differently”, and to offer alternative strategies. The whole approach is based on a philosophy of communication and on the principles of company management and societal values. As the company does not only concern itself with matters of economics, it is important to diffuse its values and to move forward in its social involvement with professionals and the general public. Using methods that are poles apart from plugging advertising, Axense proposes a form of communication that focuses on the brand’s environment more than on the product itself. It favours an ethical communication that establishes a durable image for its clients in a volatile market. In the course of its development, Axense has become a member, since 2005, of the ADIAF, helping it out with its own promotion such as creating its internet site. A successful partnership thanks to the delicate touch of the agency’s management and staff.

CREATIVTV www.creativtv.net

The MARCEL DUCHAMP PRIZE is also available on broadband video via the internet with CreativTV, the online television dedicated to the visual arts. CreativTV has been partner of the MARCEL DUCHAMP PRIZE for many years and proposes the public to meet the winner with a multimedia portrait encompassing a filmed interview, a photo report, articles by critics and documentaries.