collectors to aesthetic by occult phenomena and the The precious meditation, from spiritual or great mysteries of nature. Next magical belief to scientific comes the time of collecting and power experimentation. depicting, in which the visitor is transported into a kind of have been used since mineralogical cabinet scattered of stones Prehistory in creating paints, and with copies and vanities. This off- 30 January - 15 May 2016 were gradually collected, beat 'lithotherapy' can be preserved, arranged and summarised as follows: catalogued in private collections, Marina Abramović, cabinets of curiosities and Michel Blazy, George mineralogical galleries. They were even painted and turned Brecht, James Lee into portrait subjects in Byars, Pierre-Laurent themselves, as seen in Leroy De Barde's sumptuous 19th century "I contemplate at my leisure Cassière, Marion paintings of display cases and and manipulate as I see fit a Catusse, Marine Class, mineralogical specimens. captive, miniaturised plot, Hubert Duprat, Jean Featuring in the poetic works of almost like a reduced model the surrealists followed by the of the immensity of the Dupuy, Paul Armand experiments and installations of Gette, Isabelle the Arte Povera, Land Art and universe." Roger Caillois Supports-Surfaces movements, in Stones are precious archives of the Giovacchini, Guillaume the hands of artists, these earth. In holding and reading them, Gouerou, Laurent "involuntary masterpieces of the Man gains access to the infinity of Grasso, Alicja Kwade, universe" (Roger Caillois) time, engaging in a journey through became works of art. space and time and the concrete Didier Mahieu, state of being in our world and the Aurélien Mauplot, Éric Today, artists use rough stones as universe at large. While stones may up-cycled ready-made pieces, appear to be frozen in time, their Michel, Damián collecting them, arranging them strata are illustrations of their ever- Ortega, Ève Pietruschi, or depicting them, while others shifting nature, thus forming a kind carry out experiments on them, of living autobiography of our Emmanuel Régent, transform them and manufacture planet. Through these stones, some artists attempt to connect Man, the Evariste Richer, Jean- copies. While the history of how Earth and the Universe in a unique Philippe Roubaud, these minerals have been used, physical and metaphysical depicted or presented still experience, while others plunge the Bettina Samson, remains to be written, audience into a relativity and Valentin Souquet. contemporary artists' taste for impermanence that makes us minerals is palpable. rethink our perception of the world.

Curator: Rébecca François Designed as a fully immersive experience, the "Precious Power Minerals inspire collective of Stones" exhibition intertwines curiosity and a sense of wonder. several facets that reflect the As children and as adults, we've various different unique all embarked on treasure hunts resonances and vibrations that to collect stones, selecting the artists have lent these minerals. most intriguing specimens to We open with an invitation to arrange in our own private embark on a spiritual journey collections of little gems. The through time and space relativity, appeal minerals hold ranges from kicking off with the imaginary the simple curiosity of casual worlds and symbolism triggered Room 1 1 a paragon of human activity. 4 Veritable blocks of light, minerals Laurent Grasso (1972, and monochromes operate as James Lee Byars (1932, Mulhouse) gateways to be passed through in ______order to gaze upon the depths of the Detroit - 1997, Cairo) immaterial. In doing so, the ______installation is an "open window" Studies into the past looking out into the world. The Thin disk with hole, 1994 Oil on wood, 114 x 94 cm fluorescence creates a radiant, enveloping landscape where Marble, Ø 40 cm Collection of the artist everything seems connected, and Acquired from Taglialatella Galleries in where no words are required. 2012 This painting opens the exhibition, Everything is simultaneously Collection MAMAC, Nice creating a kind of brief gap spiritual and rational. between time and space relativity. This faux Renaissance painting James Lee Byars' elegant and 3 minimal white marble sculptures rise depicts the phenomenon of levitation. Using this anachronistic enigmatically over visitors, inspiring detail, the scene shifts to an Marina Abramović (1946, ontological contemplation. The unsettlingly strange atmosphere. Belgrade) elementary Thin disk with hole This ambiguity is enhanced by the ______sculpture comprises a disk with a painting's lack of date. The diameter of 40 cm carved into boundaries between reality and dazzlingly flawless white marble, fiction, science and belief, the Shoes for departure, 1991 featuring a barely visible hole at its visible and the invisible, the Amethyst centre. The piece acts as a present and the future, are landscape, philosophical entity and blurred. Studies into the Past 2 pieces, 26 x 50 x 20 cm 10 kg each gateway to the absolute. Enclosed inhabits a paradoxical word, a Enrico Navarra Collection - within a display case, it is future temporality (as it depicts a Courtesy of the Marina Abramović reminiscent of Neolithic China's phenomenon that has never yet Archives jade Bi disks, whose mysterious been proven to exist) written in the meaning appears to link body and past tense (through its many Instructions for the Public: enter the earth, life and death. historical references). shoes with bare feet - Eyes closed – Motionless – Depart. Time: 5 2 Limitless Isabelle Giovacchini (1982, Éric Michel (1962, Aix-en- In the 1990s, Marina Abramović Nice) perfected interactive devices that Provence) ______drew on the power of amethyst, a ______stone renowned for its spiritual, soothing and protective qualities. Aurore 541, 2015 Fluorescences, 2015 The Shoes for Departure sculpture is Positive prints of desert rose made of two amethyst monoliths photograms, 30 x 24 cm each Fluorescent pigments on canvas, carved into a pair of clogs. Fragile Collection of the artist black light, fluorite from Nice's and precious, this sculpted stone is

Natural History Museum, varying evocative of the ruins of archaeology HOW ONE OUGHT TO TURN measurements to come. A plate explains how to use TO STONE. Courtesy of the artist the piece. Visualising themselves wearing these celestial, protective — Slowly, slowly to become hard like a precious stone — slippers, visitors are invited on a Generously loaned by Nice's Natural and at last to lie there, silent and a static journey into the heart of the History Museum, monochromes and joy to eternity. precious power of stones. fluorite specimens reveal their Friedrich Nietzsche, Daybreak. secrets under the effects of black Thoughts on the Prejudices of light from within a screen box, a Morality, 1881, aphorism 541 kind of ultra-sensory sounding board. The natural elements These strange and mysterious communicate in a secret form of shapes are the result of a alchemy, with the painting serving as photographic experiment created using photograms* of desert roses, chairs and everyday objects. In Chair Collection of the artist the positive prints of which were with specimen and reworked in order to capture the equipment, pieces of quartz and a In Lames de fonds, the artist different facets and shadows cast by hammer are placed on a white chair, photographs fine slivers of rock this evaporite mineral. Hovering creating a palpable sense of tension taken from Nice's Natural History between apparition and that transforms a seemingly Museum from behind a microscope. disappearance, the flipped innocuous scene into a continuously Collated in video form, these photograms of these crystallised renewed and therefore unique event petrographic images taken for rocks mirror Nietzsche's aphorism that speaks directly to the audience's research purposes reveal the rocks' concerning petrification and death. imagination. mineralogical constitutions and a This strange fossilisation is evoked slice of their history. They are not only through the photographic 7 displayed as a successive string of process but through the nature of worlds to be explored, interlinking this rock itself, made from Bettina Samson (1978, the past and the future. evaporated infiltrated water. The Paris) shapes that emerge on the surface of 9 the paper are reminiscent of the ______inflamed tangles that occur at 451°F Laurent Grasso (1972, (temperature at which paper catches "Comment, par hasard, Mulhouse) fire and burns in Ray Bradbury's Henri Becquerel découvrit dystopian novel Fahrenheit 451, la radioactivité", 2009 ______1953). Series of five photographs on Baryta *Photogram: Images of objects placed on light- Psychokinesis, 2008 sensitive film and exposed to light. paper, 80 x 100 cm each HD video and animation, 12’30’’ Frac Ile-de-France 6 Collection of the artist - Courtesy These black and white photographs of the Sean Kelly Gallery, New George Brecht (1926, New are prints created from uraninite York and the Edouard Malingue York - 2008, Cologne) radiation (natural uranium oxide), Gallery, Hong Kong ______with no other additional source of light. The artist recreates the Psychokinesis transports visitors conditions that led to the French into time and space relativity by Chair Event (mineral sample physician's accidental discover of plunging them into the heart of a and hammer), "Footnote for radioactivity in 1896, when he was surrealist René Magritte painting volume I of The Book of the researching fluorescence in uranium equipped with movement and salts. These photographic prints sound. In a scorched desert Tumbler on Fire" series, reveal the invisible, and in doing so, landscape, a magnificent, colossal 1968 they evoke occult and supernatural monolith towers overhead against a phenomena. The mineral becomes a crystal-clear sky backdrop. Little by Chair painted white, mineral, meteorite with magnetic powers, little, as if inhabited by hammer and associated text lifting itself away from the black supernatural powers, the rock floats 81.5 x 39 x 43 cm backdrop scattered with light dust, off the ground with a heavy in a symbol of the slowness. Time dilates. The Reconstruction of the 1986 piece incommensurability of the universe. deafening, serious and profound with the artist's approval for the soundtrack heightens this sense of "George Brecht" exhibition, MAC 8 latency. Magritte's Atlantis levitates Lyon, 9 October - 25 November in the blue of the sky, rotating on 1986. The original piece belongs to Isabelle Giovacchini (1982, itself, and then with the same the Hansjörg Mayer Collection, extreme tension, drops back down Stuttgart. Nice) into the landscape. The title of this ______Donated in 1986 – Collection Musée piece refers to the power of thought d'art contemporain de Lyon and imagination. Lames de fonds, 2015-2016 In "Chair Events", George Brecht calls on active participation from the HD video projection on loop made audience in their approach to his from thin slivers of mineralogical random and poetic combinations of samples taken from Nice's Museum of Natural History, 10'02". 10 12

Emmanuel Régent (1974, Evariste Richer (1969, Nice) Montpellier) ______

Pierre (7 février), 2008 Masque à faire tomber la neige Natural stone with #1, 2010 metallisation Calcite 37 x 31 cm 27 x 13 x 16 cm Amarante/Hellier du Verneuil Collection of the artist - Courtesy of Room 2 Collection - Courtesy of the artist the Caroline Smulders Gallery, Paris and Meessen De Clercq, Brussels and Analix Forever, Geneva

11 This sculpture lends a piece of Left on the floor, almost forgotten, a natural calcite the ritual function of single stone narrates an unexpected Valentin Souquet (1978, a mask. The white stone is roughly trajectory that connects the ordinary Rouen) textured and dotted with impurities, to a poetic, ambivalent appearance. ______reminiscent of snow, and pierced The stone has been gleaned by the with two small holes. Presented in a artist on the trip he daily borrows Amethyst Island, 2011 display case like an ethnographic between his studio and his home, in a object, this anthropomorphic mask surveying process. Metallised with Wood, resin, mirror, carafe, is transformed into a sacred object silver, the stone instils a sense of amethyst that conveys Man's desire to unsettling weirdnes. A far cry from 75 x 95 x 40 cm understand and master natural alchemical sublimation, this Collection of the artist phenomena. archaeological vestige from the future seems contaminated in some way. An Amethyst Island is displayed in unrelenting truth reigns supreme. 13 suspension like a console or altar. At

the frontier between decorative Paul Armand Gette (1927, * element and ritual object, this

sculpture depicts a black island that Lyon) "The vision that the eye is evocative of the ruins and caverns ______records is always poor and of Romantic paintings. In this uncertain. The imagination volcanic and dream-like landscape, Offrande à Aphrodite enriches and adds to this an absinthe carafe is placed on an (L'Apothéose des fraises ou amethyst, a powerful stone Les Menstrues de la vision with the treasures of renowned for its protective effects memory, of knowledge, and against intoxication and déesse), 2009 with everything that drunkenness, and against the Aphrodite à l’Ailante, inkjet PVC, experience, culture and history psychoactive properties of this 260 x 200 cm mythical and cursed liqueur. On the Quenast dacite, 32 x 40 x 21 cm contributes, not to mention other side of the mirror, beneath the Three glasses in crystal and bronze, 11 x 18 everything the imagination melancholic island, crystals made cm invents or dreams, as it sees from raw wood, uncontaminated by Strawberries, rose petals and the black platform, flourish. The strawberry coulis fit." (Roger Caillois) philosopher's stone evokes the Collection of the artist - Courtesy of Wormwood star which, in the The supposed power of stones is the Jean Brolly gallery, Paris Apocalypse Of Saint John, crashes sometimes diverted, as illustrated to Earth, polluting streams and by inexplicable phenomena and In a series of fully demystified rivers, where "many people died phantasmagoria that combine metaphors and mythologies, Paul from the waters that had become magic, reality, fiction, belief and Armand Gette weaves nudes and bitter". myth. Stones therefore become female genitals in with natural ritual objects that convey Man's elements (stones, flowers, fruits and quest to understand and master the water). Offrande à Aphrodite great mysteries of nature. (L'Apothéose des fraises ou Les Menstrues de la déesse) invokes the drenched yellow roses interacts with 16 divine aspect of love and sexuality. these volcanic stones erected like In front of a large-scale print on lingams. Damián Ortega (1967, tarpaulin of a mould of Aphrodite of * Phallic symbol of the god Shiva. Shiva worship is Cnidus*, a paradigm of the eroticism linked to the idea of fertility and creative power. Mexico) of the naked female form, and ______assisted by young women**, the 15 artist engages in a celebration that Sol, 2015 involves crushing red berries and Card, Kraft paper, Indian paper, flowers arranged in crystal glasses Damián Ortega (1967, newspaper, bamboo, Polyurethane on to Quenastvieille dacite aged 200 Mexico) foam, acid-free PVA glue 83 x 86 cm to 300 million years old. The ______(closed) running liquid evokes the loss of virginity and menstruation as well as Cinco anillos, 2011 Collection of the artist - Courtesy of pagan sacrifices and rituals. This the artist and Kurimanzutto, Mexico celebration can be interpreted as Metallic frame and suspended City both an ode to womanhood and objects: fragments of coloured glass, freedom. This pairing of the cryptic (Zamak), metallic cable, In this evocation of the concept of a powers of the stone and sexuality is sandpaper and red tezontle microcosm and macrocosm, Sol an irrevocable reference to the (volcanic rock used in construction [Sun] serves as a refocussed version origins of Man and the world. in Mexico) created in a simple sphere made 254 x 240 x 240 cm from card, Kraft paper, Indian * The Aphrodite of Cnidus was the first depiction of a nude female form in Greek sculpture. It is ISelf Collection, London - Courtesy of paper, newspaper, bamboo, said that the sculptor Praxiteles used his mistress Polyurethane foam and glue, laid as a model, the famous courtesan Phryne, getting the artist and Kurimanzutto, Mexico out of a bath taken in honour of Demeter. City out on the floor with a quarter cut Praxiteles is thought to have made two sculptures, away and opened like a fruit, one clothed and the other nude, with the right revealing what is habitually hand covering the genitals and a robe held in the In his Cinco anillos [5 rings] piece, left hand. This sculpture was sold to the citizens of Damián Ortega assembles concealed. Cnidus and was hugely popular. A number of anecdotes, moulds and interpretations stemmed fragments of coloured glass, alloy from its erotic power. Paul Armand Gette's (Zamak), metallic cable, sandpaper 17 photograph was taken in 1999, based on a mould and tezontle (red volcanic rock used housed in the Villa Médicis named Aphoridte Ailanthus, after the leaf chosen to hide her in construction in Mexico) in a Aurélien Mauplot (1983, genitals. suspended cosmic sphere. Vincennes) ** Anna Balkin, Morgane Lepechoux and Simultaneously poor and precious, Elisabeth Verrat, students at Nice's art school. ______delicate and unchanging, these 14 samples transform into an Sculptures découvertes sur expanding world in which everything

is separate and yet connected, too. l'île de Moana fa 'a' aro, 2015 Paul Armand Gette (1927, The dynamics between the colours Trees, basalt, screws, photographs, Lyon) and the emptiness, the suspension of minerals, varying measurements ______the elements and the cut and stratigraphic composition create Collection of the artist Solidifications devant la optical illusions that rely on the Aurélien Mauplot visitors into brûlante humidité des audience's movement. The visual trick played here refers back to the the tale of an isolated forest deep in Nymphes, 2013 magnetosphere and the rings of the Pacific, where basalt rock is encrusted inside splintered tree Video, 14’00’’ Uranus. This sort of dream-catcher trunks. Documentation from a Puy de la Vache basalt, Hurbache or Shamanic object made from little variety of different fields, eras and keratophyre, Quenast dacite, yellow bits of suspended nothingness lands (map, photography, writings rose petals, varying measurements reinjects wonderment, magic and fantasy into the banality of everyday and vegetable, mineral and animal Collection of the artist - Courtesy of life. specimens) describe a Tahitian the Jean Brolly gallery, Paris practice that aims to heal trees and reconcile volcanoes with the Earth. The phallic, volcanic rocks form Making up the oceanic crust, basalt mysterious altars that intensify the is a magmatic rock used for its seemingly timeless erotic charge of protective, fluidifying and soothing the installation. The image of dew- properties and benefits. This tale draws inspiration from personal and are stages on which Man's memory 19 collective imagination fuelled by of the world are played out, a space myths and legends as well as great where the categories separating the Jean Dupuy (1925, discoveries and the mysteries of natural and the artificial, the organic nature. This enchanted or cursed and the inorganic, are Moulins) forest radiates a kind of magic as it choreographed into aesthetic ______questions Man's capacity to believe arrangements. These compositions and experience wonderment. describe our relationship to the "Polype-loupe", 1999-2013 world - relations that are ever- Magnifying glasses and stones on * shifting, and are put to the test painted wood, watercolours and "If I endure their witchery, it through the artistic creativity of Jean-Philippe Roubaud, Hubert , varying measurements is no doubt because they Duprat or Marion Catusse. Collection of the artist - Courtesy draw on some other of the Loevenbruck gallery, Paris ascendant to take effect on me. For months before I Jean Dupuy collects the weirdest took on the challenge of and most wonderful stones. When placed under a biconvex lens, these describing them, I was 'freaks of nature' take on a life all of fascinated by them. Ever their own. Slow and prolonged since I have known of their observation of the stones triggers existence, I have been the imagination. A self-proclaimed 'lazy artist', Jean Dupuy retaliates unable to resist the call of to the fixed nature of stone with the acquiring more. My lightness of mental effervescence. apartment is full of them." Room 3 In an ode to the "queen of Roger Caillois faculties*" that is the human imagination, the artist applies 18 Baudelaire's "moral of the toy*" to Dream stones, ruin marbles, Michel Blazy these flayed pebbles, in which septarians, jaspers, agates, (1966, children are introduced to artistic sandstones and dendrites are Monaco) beauty through their ability to renowned for their abilities to ______experience wonderment and connect the inert with the organic, inventiveness. This piece and through "stabilised miracles" "Pierres qui sèchent", 2015 demonstrates the artist's beloved (Roger Caillois), giving birth to 'DIY' aesthetic. representations of the world, Wallpaper paste, food colouring, mountains, forests and landscapes, varying measurements * Charles Baudelaire, "Salon de 1859: La Reine and even human or animal des facultés" and "La morale du joujou", 1853 in Collection of the artist Charles Baudelaire, Écrits sur l’art, Le livre de silhouettes. These acheiropoieta Poche, 1999, Paris, p.243-250.

(meaning not made by Man, but by Michel Blazy creates his own agates the miracles of nature) rival the and septarians using wallpaper 20 finest artistic creations. They are paste drenched in water and food feats of mimesis, simulacrum, colouring. These 'drying stones' Alicja Kwade (1979, appearance. While some sought evolve over time, mirroring the dream stones, like the 19th century Katowice) effects of crystallisation and Chinese painter K’iao Chan who put ______reminding visitors that seemingly his name to one of his natural inert stones remain in a constant 412 leere liter bis zum paintings as one might produce a state of change, recording the piece of ready-made jewellery, pulsations of our planet like a Anfang, 2008 others looked for and collected little seismograph. Through these low- 555 kg of empty labelled rocks and stones for their intriguing tech experiments and effects, champagne bottles, ground beauty, such as Jean Dupuy, Ève Michel Blazy links the lifeless to the 70 x 110 cm Pietruschi or Marine Class. Others living and affords us a glimpse into still, like Michel Blazy, Emmanuel Collection of the artist - Courtesy the future. Régent or Alicja Kwade, played on of the König gallery, Berlin the theme and created their very own stones. Cabinets of curiosities A spectacular pile of scintillating directly from an imaginary cabinet quartz transforms the stone into green and grey particles forms a of curiosities, these drawings of something resembling an animal's mysterious mineral landscape using mineralogical display cases are skull, and the work of art into a champagne bottles ground down to packed full of iconographic and spectacular vanity. a powder. The effect is a dazzling, symbolic detail. Crystals* and shimmery creation that contrasts bezoars* abound, evoking the with the trivial nature of the cabinet of curiosities' narrative value 23 materials used while nevertheless as well as the relativity of human evoking glamour and luxury. This awareness. The title of this series Guillaume Gouerou (1987) pile of broken champagne bottles (ukiyo-e) refers to Japanese prints ______symbolises the vacuity of human used to describe the impermanence existence and shattered dreams. and relativity of everything. In a world of appearances in which all is MW 6400, "Metatron Project" but smoke and mirrors, the dark and series, 2013-2016 metallic value 21 Oven, 120 x 120 x 120 cm of the graphite stirs melancholic Control panel, 160 x 70 x 70 cm Jean-Philippe Roubaud feeling. This series is therefore a Co-production Villa Arson, Nice (1973, Cannes) contemporary take on the concept of memento mori, serving as a ______Collection of the artist reminder of the ephemeral, fragile and transient nature of the human "Souvenir du monde condition. Fulgurites, "Metatron Project" flottant, autoportrait", 2015 series, 2013-2016 *Initially considered curiosities, crystals helped 120 x 180 cm define atomic composition thanks to studies Carved stones, varying measurements carried out on their structure. ** These foreign bodies found in the stomachs of With the support of jeweller Lola Miche, "Souvenir du some mammals were considered curiosities and La Station, Nice and, 40mcube, Rennes were highly prized for their alchemical and monde flottant, healing properties until the mid-18th century. Collection of the artist bézoard", 2015 22 Guillaume Gouerou is fascinated by 120 x 90 cm mineralogy and exact and inexact

Marion Catusse (1991, sciences. "Metatron Project" refers to a "Souvenir du monde divine power, positioning this Paris) flottant, opus magnum", experience within a semi-alchemical or ______demiurgical quest. A complex 2015 geometric shape, a metal 29 x 29 cm (x4) Sans titre, "Les Quartz" series, rhombicuboctahedron, provides the MW 6400 2014 armour within which a oven "Souvenir du built by the artist to melt minerals and Quartz, nasal wall, ink and glue reshape new ones is contained. Using monde flottant, cristal 4.5 x 9 x 4.5 cm stones sourced here and there, the 2" artist forges his own stones which he , 2015 Collection of the artist calls Fulgurites, evaporite rocks born 120 x 90 cm from a meeting of lightening and Sans titre, "Les Micas" series, desert soil rich in , highlighting "Souvenir du monde 2014 the artist's ability to create using fire. Reworked into classical faceted form flottant, cristal 1", 2015 Mica, ink and glue by a jeweller, the artist's works of art 2.5 x 16 x 5.5 cm 120 x 90 cm take on the appearance of precious Graphite on Canson paper Collection of the artist stones.

Collection of the artist Marion Catusse embellishes quartz

and mica with a blue element which, This series was created using when combined with glue and ink, graphite, a native element mineral mimics human stem cells, thus present in the earth's crust or in blurring the boundaries between meteorites, and used as paint since naturalist categories. The splendour the prehistoric era. As if taken of a dash of deposited on the revolutionised our knowledge of the like a minimalist conceptual 24 origins of humankind, this black sculpture. Naturally magnetic and crystal operates like an illusion. cabochon-like in appearance, these

Evariste Richer (1969, * First relatively intact fossil dating back around 3 stones take their name from the Montpellier) million years, discovered in Ethiopia in 1974 and Greek mountain Magnetos, and cut initially considered to be the species responsible a strange figure oscillating between ______for the origins of humanity before being categorised in the bipedal hominid family. the mineral and the organic. From a heap of glistening jewels to a "Les Micachromes", 2012 26 concentration of necrophagous flies, Series of 11 ilfochromes this sculpture leans in to the visitor, 162 x 120 cm each Ève Pietruschi (1982, Nice) whispering in their ear a precious Collection of the artist - Courtesy of warning: "Remember that you will UntilThen, Paris ______die".

"Récoltes", 2015 Micachrome #3, 2012 28 Collection of drawings, cotton paper Private collection, Paris tracings, varying measurements Marine Class (1983,

Chambray-Les-Tours) Micachrome #5, 2012 Collection of the artist ______Collection MAC VAL, Musée d’art In her work on memory of elusive or contemporain du Val-de-Marne forgotten space and time, Pierres de rêve, 2013 throughout her travels Ève Evariste Richer captures the shiny, Pietruschi collects unusual and Painted wood, enamelled ceramic, friable texture of mica via the ordinary stones which she reworks marbled paper, leather, stones, photographic process of through photographic transfer coloured crayon on paper, , 40 ilfochrome*. Sheets of mica are techniques. These drawings of x 34 x 35 cm placed one at a time in the gleaned stones and rocks outline a Drawing of a mountain, 24 x 30 cm photographic magnifier before being dual movement, that of evanescent Collection of the artist directly revealed on ilfochrome memory and of projection into the Marine Class turns a toolbox into a paper. These fossilised potential future. Brought together in mineral box. This is where she keeps "Micachromes" whisk visitors away a collection, these 'Récoltes' her collection of stones and rocks, on a journey through the strata of ['Harvests'] are both sketches and most of which were collected on the time. ruins that hint at the vestiges of Greek island of Tinos. In a mimesis *an ancient positive-to-positive photographic things to come. that plays on the ambiguity between development technique presentation and representation, 27 reality and illusion, this miniature, 25 mobile and practical compilation Hubert Duprat (1957, can be read as a contemporary Alicja Kwade (1979, Nérac) interpretation of dream stone Katowice) collections. The entire world seems ______to be contained within this box. ______Arranged inside it, the specimens Sans titre, 2008 are enclosed within mouldings that Lucy, 2004-2006 Pile comprised of polished follow their every curve. Removed, Compressed black charcoal and magnetite they are presented on pedestals adhesive 80 x 280 x 280 cm made by the artist against a 14 x 14 x 18 cm backdrop reminiscent of the trompe Acquired from the artist in 2009 – l’œil of coloured marble. This Collection of the artist - Courtesy of Collection Centre National des Arts microcosm then takes life, with the König gallery, Berlin Plastiques - On loan at the Frac anthropomorphic forms or natural Languedoc-Roussillon since décors emerging on these little Lucy is a black made from 07/12/2009 stones, combining to create a world compressed charcoal and adhesive. Courtesy of the artist and Art : Concept, of their own that can be contained in Placed under a cloche, the sculpture Paris a handkerchief. As a counterpoint, a is as stunning as the most highly drawing of a mountain evokes a sought after . As with the A pile of several tonnes of quote from Roger Caillois on the fossil named Lucy*, which magnetite is spread across the floor powers of the imagination: "All stones are mountains in their time and that of space. Rotating the previous future? A nomad? A strength." image by 180° turns stalagmites into refugee? Everything is hypothetical stalactites, while watching the video here in this reminder of the fragile 29 the wrong way around (as if condition of mankind and the world. rewound) reverses the soundtrack. Observing the scene from behind Emmanuel Régent (1974, This piece calls on body, earth and the mist of dirty, old glass, the memory in a listening experience. viewer/explorer is plunged into a Nice) The bass continues on, echoing world beyond time. Echoing Henry ______through the exhibition space and David Thoreau's Walden or Life in transporting visitors into a strange the Woods (1854)*, Oversoul "Mes naufrages", 2005-2015 place in space and time where Undersoul invites the viewer into a memories mingle with the world's melancholic reflection on the world Pieces of shipwrecks, varying concrete forms. The black and white via nature observation. measurements image reveals folds in these Sandra Hegedüs Mulliez Collection * A travel journal and reflection of nature and calcareous cones, formed drop by society written by Thoreau during a retreat to a - Courtesy of the artist and Caroline drop like tears made of stone. The cabin built on the edge of Walden Pond. Smulders, Paris and Analix Forever, piece's title is a reference to songs Geneva designed to conjure up sadness and *

grief, while enhancing the overall Emmanuel Régent collects pieces of Through their spontaneous beauty, Baroque effect. boat hulls of all sizes as others would stones seem to contain both our precious stones. These underwater original past and our future, archaeological ruins are collected by 31 perpetual movement and the the artist during free diving and transient, science and the great exploration in the harbor of. Didier Mahieu (1961, mysteries of nature. Whether Suspended against the wall, the "Mes Jemappes) spiritual, symbolic or mimetic, these Naufrages" series constitutes a ______stones illustrate the relativity and floating horizon. As with 'landscape impermanence of all things and the stones', these scattered fragments Oversoul Undersoul, 2015 world itself. They cast doubt over operate like pieces of a painting - the the principle of reality and realism, Mediterranean's accidental Mixed media, meteorite dust, and call into question our methods masterpieces. varying measurements of understanding, perceiving and believing. As living memories of the Collection of the artist 30 planet and universe, they invite us to Acknowledgements: Corentin reflect on the past, present and

Mahieu, Maud Barral, Isabelle future. Pierre-Laurent Cassière Pellegrini, Francis Siméoni, Antonio (1982, Clermont-Ferrand) Brusadelli, Jonathan Puit, Éric Living in an atmosphere of ______Haubruge at the Université de stagnation, these artists chose to Gembloux (ULG) and Gilbert leave behind the criticism and Perlein Concretus Lamento, 2015 disillusionment of the failings of a modern utopia. In an age of Black and white HD video, stereo In a mountain landscape drawn with dematerialisation and nanny states, sound, 11’30’’ graphite, one rock seems to stand relativity and wonderment are Collection of the artist out on its way to landing inside the returned to the spotlight. In a exhibition space. The scope and temporality one might qualify as the In this sound and video installation, attention paid to the drawing are "future anterior*", so inextricably Pierre-Laurent Cassière plays with reminiscent of Romantic paintings intertwined are the temporalities in the sounds created by lithophonic as well as 19th century photography, question, the artists reassess the stalactites (ringing rocks). In a cave in which the viewer is taken on a power of the imagination. They aged several millions of years old, journey through space and time. distil a concept in which dreaming the surveyor films himself in close- This drawing raises an unanswered and projection into the future are up as he taps these calcareous question, too - where might this still possible. Because thanks to the concretions with his bare hand. In extraordinary rock made from power of imagination, "every stone is doing so, he awakens echoes that meteorite dust have come from? a mountain of power" (Roger are picked up by microphones Split in two, within the sculpture is a Caillois), every man and woman a placed on the surface of the stone. man in the foetal position covered grain of sand, a resistant force. The recording of the action with a survival blanket. Could he be undergoes a dual inversion: that of a fossilised time traveller from a *Arnault Pierre, Futur antérieur: Art dissolution by infiltrating waters and black to blackish brown shade that contemporain et rétrocipation, M19, Paris, 2012 a long journey down the walls of varies from shiny to dull. It is For Roger Caillois: Roger Caillois, La Lecture caves. magnetic and makes for a good des pierres, Xavier Barral/Natural History electrical conductor. Deposits are Museum of Paris, Paris, 2015. Coal Rock derived from vegetal found within igneous or ______: matter. Black and compact, some metamorphic rock. Glossary parts of it are dull, soft and leave traces on fingers, while others are Marble: Marble (from the Greek shiny and harder. Coal is made from marmoros, meaning 'shiny') comes By Alain Dody, Conservation decomposing vegetal matter and from limestone that has been Attaché and Head of visitor wood debris sheltered from the air subjected to metamorphic pressure. experience, documentary and and transformed by bacteria. A number of different varieties heritage research at Nice's Natural exist, which owe their beauty to their History Museum. Crystal: A homogeneous solid range of colours and veins - the

mass in which the atoms are latter caused by organic impurities. Amethyst: Owes its colour, which structured in space, defining what is can range from light to dark purple, known as the unit cell. The word Minerals: The word 'mineral' is to and impurities. It 'crystal' comes from the Greek kryos, used in opposition to 'vegetable', is mainly found in Siberia and meaning 'glacial cold'. It was long 'animal' and 'fungal' (relating to Brazil, and in the Massif Central in believed that rock crystal (a variety mushrooms). Two types of minerals France. It takes its name from the of quartz) was ice that was so hard it exist: amorphous minerals (from the Greek amethystos, and protects from never melted. Greek a, meaning 'without', and drunkenness thanks to its colour Diamond: The hardest natural morphe, meaning 'shape'), the which is reminiscent of wine cut with material (maximum hardness of 10 constitutive atoms of which are not water. according to the Mohs scale). This structured in a homogeneous

'simple' , considered the most network, and crystalline minerals, in Silver: This metal has been highly noble of precious stones, has long which the atoms are arranged in a prized since Antiquity, and can be caught the eye of many... regular and repetitive pattern in found in sheet, sliver, nugget or space. filament form. Silver crystals are Fluorite: Mineral formed of cubic rare and are cubic or octahedron- aggregates of various different Meteorite: Earth is continuously shaped. The best silver comes from colours (green, purple, sometimes bombarded with fragments of rock Norway, Mexico or South America. yellow). The mineral form of from out of space. In most cases, calcium fluoride with traces of little fragments break off and Basalt: Igneous rock with a dark, organic compounds. It is dissipate in the atmosphere. The black, microlithic structure characterised by phenomena such as resulting tail of light is called a characterised by the presence of fluorescence and meteor or shooting star. The largest large crystals, etc. thermoluminescence. among them reach Earth, causing Volcanoes on the islands of Hawaii significant sound and light and Réunion emit basaltic lava. Fulgurite: This stone is quite phenomena.

Dating back to tertiary era lava literally born of a bolt of lightning. flows, basalt is abundant in the Electric and thermal shock (bolt of Mica: Metamorphic and igneous Massif Central in France. lightning of several thousand rock characterised by large degrees) results in quartz fusing in hexagonal sheets. Mica is reflective Bezoar: A concretion that forms in the sand. A kind of boiling process and can be easily split with a nail or the digestive system of humans and then occurs which, after cooling, pocket knife. There are two other mammals, this "bile stone" was results in a natural, impure and non- varieties: white, which contains a source of beliefs and superstitions transparent glass. and potassium, and for centuries. It was considered to black, which contains iron and possess thousands of medical and Graphite: Extremely pure carbon. magnesium. supernatural powers. A legendary This is the softest form of carbon, stone that still sparks the while diamonds, another form of Uraninite: Made from uranium imagination today! highly pure carbon, is the hardest dioxide, it is the primary uranium

form. mineral. Formerly known as Calcite: Chemical limestone. pitchblende, Marie Curie used this Crystallisation and deposition in Magnetite: An excellent oxide of mineral to discover polonium and radium. calcite form occur following iron. Characterised by a metallic

Gold: A native element that is aesthetic appeal, their diversity and best-known in nugget form, but is their origin. most commonly found as gold dust. Notes Musée d’Art Moderne et d’Art Contemporain Gold crystals are fairly rare, it Place Yves Klein - 06364 Nice Cedex 4 usually presents in cube, octahedron ______Open from 10am to 6pm except Mondays and dodecahedron form. It is a good (and 27 March and 1 May) +33(0)4 97 13 heat conductor. It is also responsible ______42 01 for a great number of misfortunes in www.mamac-nice.org this world. ______Musées de Nice pass free for Nice Côte d’Azur Metropolis residents Quartz: Mineral made of silicon. upon ______presentation of proof of identity and This incredibly hard mineral can residence from the last 3 months. The scratch glass and steel. It exists in a ______pass grants free admission to all number of varieties such as milky, municipal museums and galleries and is smoky, purple or amethyst. valid for a 3-year period. ______Single ticket - €10: Access to the Volcanic rock: This rock is MAMAC, the Théâtre de la created through the solidification of ______Photographie et de l’Image, the Espace magma, the thick, high-temperature Ferrero, and the Galeries de la Marine et des Ponchettes for 48 hours. elements found beneath the Earth's ______7-day ticket - €20: Access to all crust. Magma can rise to the surface museums and galleries for 7 days. suddenly as a volcanic eruption that ______Free admission: see conditions on the takes on a number of different museum's website forms: eruption, effusion, explosion, ______etc. As it is deposited the magma Guided tour every Wednesday at 3pm, loses its gas and becomes lava. booking required ______Single rate: €6 Group rate (15-20 people): €82 Desert rose: Gypsum featuring ______Guided tour for school groups: free grains of quartz in which the upon request, booking required intertwined crystals are reminiscent ______of a rose's petals. Kids' workshop: For kids aged 6 to 11: 5-day workshops during the school What's the difference ______holidays, mornings from 10:30am to 12:30pm. between a mineral, rock and ______Price: €8 for a 2-hour session, €40 for the full week stone? According to dictionaries, rock is a mineral mass and vice versa. Further information available on the The word 'mineral' has a more general ______museum's website meaning used to refer to the structure © MAMAC, Nice, 2016 for the full document of the Earth's crust. In geology, it also ______refers to crystalline substances in which ______the atoms are regularly structured. A ______This exhibition was supported by rock might be included in this whole and then categorised based on a number of properties. A stone would then be a ______fragmented part of a rock (?). It's difficult to settle on rock-solid ______definitions!

______A window for the Museum ______As part of the exhibition, the Natural History Museum of Nice invests windows of plastic arts workshop, ______located Place Yves Klein, with a selection of 30 mineral specimens from its collections and chosen for their

Post-exhibition activities The mineralogist's workshop Draw your own collection of Collect your own stones stones made from paper, plastic, Use your imagination to foil, soap, buttons, pebbles... colour in and interpret this Let your imagination run fine sliver of rock. wild! Keep your treasures in a box.

At home...

Make your very own surprise stones for your friends.

Mix together: - a cup of flour, - a cup of used and dried coffee grounds, - ½ cup of salt and sand.

Complete these English Add around a ¾ cup of expressions warm water and mix to form a dough. To have a heart of gold Divide the dough into 4 Get blood from a diamond balls. Use your finger to Between a ______and a hard crystal make a hole in the middle. place marble Place a marble in the hole, To be carved in stone then cover it up.

A ______'s throw away rock Place your stones on a To be as solid as a baking tray and put in the oven at 170°C for 35 to 40 minutes.

Work your way through the Once baked and cooled, you exhibition and draw a can give these surprise fluorite, a diamond, a piece stones to your loved ones: all of magnetite in cabochon they have to do is break form and a crystal. Next, through the shell to discover circle those considered to be the gems within. precious stones.