Newspaper Jan Mot Afgiftekantoor 1000 Brussel 1 Verschijnt vijfmaal per jaar in V.U. Jan Mot januari – maart – mei – Kleine Zavel 10 augustus – oktober 1000 Brussel No. 119, oktober 2019 Erkenningsnummer P309573 222 Jaargang 23 No. 119 An image of the swan These sheets were the first Elle revient quelques jours dipping its indication of a significant après avec le curateur qui déjà eck into water includes. body of work. quelques compris The beauty of “inter / (advertisement) nationality”: Pierre Bismuth’s Abstractions 222 Exhibition 14/11 – 21/12 systems merge, thus losing their previously Opening clearly defined representational capacity. 13/11, 6 – 8 pm With this aesthetic intervention, Pierre Bismuth not only reflects on the aims and directions of worldwide refugee flows, but also on the precarious position that nation PIERRE states today are taking in the context of neoliberal globalization and the power of BISMUTH global players in global affairs. In addition, the artist here composes picture objects ABSTRACTIONS that not only have a high aesthetic quality in addition to their political dimension, but also allude to recent art history. Jan Mot Petit Sablon / Kleine Zavel 10 Here are two examples: the flag Abstrac- 1000 Brussels, Belgium tion (Bangladesh / Austria) with its three horizontal color stripes, two in black, one in green, and the circular dot, which is held The work was developed for the project in two shades of red, presents an abstract How Many Billboards, a MAK Center and image that is well-calculated reminiscent Schindler House initiative. In this case, his of non-representational paintings of the proposal was to revisit one of his most er- avant-garde of the 20th century. The flag toire and became a source of reflection in Abstraction (Afghanistan / Great Britain), emble Do something with the book Fallen- however, plays with the coat of arms of lassen by Brigitte Schwaiger in which the Pierre Bismuth, Abstractions (Austria / Bangla- Afghanistan, a historic mosque, which is Austrian novelist describes her experiences desh), 2019, print on fabric, 120 x 196 cm here as it were blinded by the Union Jack, as an artist in a psychiatric hospital. (Mar- clearly on the American Pop Art of the photographer, himself posing as an “aging By 1960s. rock star”. On this occasion he edited only Raimar Stange one image – worth of Mick Jagger at his This is how Pierre Bismuth succeeds in in- best – full of attitude, grabbing a mic, hair separably combining two qualities that are slicked back and defiant look. This image BERLIN, OCT. 8 – In his new series usually considered irreconcilable in art, the Star (Character Appr Do some al size of a Abstractions (2019), Pierre Bismuth com- flags of his “abstractions”: those of politi- typical Los Angeles billboard, together with bines, in the context of the current global cal reflection and aesthetic beauty. the text “Think of Good” – which could refugee crisis, two flags of nation states self-help, “New-agish”, positive thinking into one new flag. One of the two flags The performance as a genre and a format, advertising assumed to be characteristic of sampled on these visual hybrids represents ertoire and became a source of reflection in Southern California culture. the country of origin of the refugee, the her visual arts practice. In 2012, DGF ini fax, two main Los Angeles thoroughfares, other the destined European host country. ertoire and became a source of reflection in halfway from the studio he rented in Sun- The artistic result are new “inter / national tiated a new series of performance works, set Boulevard when he arrived to LA in the flags”, which become conceptual picto- ertoire and became a source of reflection in 1970s, and Venice where he lived in the rial objects, in which two national symbol flection in her visual arts practice. 1980s. In fact, both places. 2 Newspaper Jan Mot Dominique 119 Marienbad électrique Dominique Gonzalez-Foerster, Marienbad électrique, Palais Garnier, Paris, 2019, hologram © Christophe Pelé / OnP 3 Newspaper Jan Mot Dominique 119 By architect-prince Ludwig II, the writer Emily her work, to return to the artificial persona Tristan Bera Brontë, the super-hero activist Anonymous of the actress-muse, the object of desire and Bob Dylan, appearing with the trans- for the masculine gazes of such as Buñuel, formed, made-up and travestied features of Demy, Kümmel, Resnais or Truffaut, who PARIS, SEP. 30 – Last year at Marienbad DGF during what can be experienced live, have dominated the history of cinema and (1961) by Alain Resnais is one of the most for the artist, as a trance and for the viewer, whose legacy is now being reconsidered in enigmatic and magnetic films in the history as a quasi-esoteric experience. favour of other viewpoints, other visions of of cinema, as much for its impenetrable cinema and of society? scenario by the writer Alain Robbe-Grillet, Marienbad électrique is the last part of a a leading exponent of the Nouveau Roman, trilogy of holographic apparitions devoted What one should see, and what fascinates as for the performance of Delphine Seyrig, to opera, following Fitzcarraldo (M.2062) me in the work of DGF and in this work in whose timeless delivery and poetical, so- and OPERA (Q.M.15), in which DGF ap- particular, is what is formally absent and phisticated presence are unforgettable for peared, respectively in the guise of Klaus which nevertheless states its presence. In any film-lover. An incomprehensible film, Kinski’s demented Fitzcarraldo in Werner a comparative consideration of the work of it is nonetheless an essential one in that, Herzog’s eponymous 1982 film and as DGF, on the subject of Last Year at Marien- even today, with its scent of mystery still as Maria Callas performing in playback well- bad (a common passion that links the artist potent decades later, it continues to inspire known arias from Verdi’s La Traviata and and the writer, a film freely adapted from artists and contemporary creation. Commis- Medea by Luigi Cherubini. For this third The Invention of Morel by Adolfo Bioy sioned by the Paris Opera and the Centre installment, through the ghostly projection Casares, genially incomprehensible per- Pompidou-Metz, Marienbad électrique by in an isolated box at the back of the Palais haps only according to Cartesian criteria) Dominique Gonzalez-Foerster – the title Garnier on the right hand side, visible from Vila-Matas wrote: “It was clear that, if one of which is borrowed from the eponymous the stalls and the boxes opposite, DGF takes let oneself be swept along by the form, the book by Enrique Vila-Matas dedicated to on the appearance of Delphine Seyrig: a voices of the actors, the music, the pace, the the investigative method of the artist – does dark silhouette clad in black from the film passion of the characters, it was the easiest not reveal the secret of the film or shed any by Resnais alternates with the white attired film in the world to watch in the sense that new light upon it. Dominique Gonzalez- blond vampire of Daughters of Darkness it addressed only the spectators’ sensibili- Foerster deepens the film’s mystery, adds (1971) by Harry Kümel. The image is ac- ties, the capacity to contemplate, listen, feel new references, other ambiguities and, in companied by an electric sonata specially and be moved, but laying aside from the a personal manner, quite literally brings it composed by Julien Perez which is re- outset, of course, all preconceived ideas, to life. miniscent of the Valse de Marienbad by all prevalent commonplaces regarding cin- Francis Seyrig and Antoine Duhamel’s ema.” The apparition at the Palais Garnier, Dominique Gonzalez-Foerster (DGF, born melody in Stolen Kisses (1968) by François just like Resnais’ film, in reality conceals 1965) strove, from the outset of her career, Truffaut, the one that, like a siren’s song, an aesthetic manifesto that is much more to conceive multi-disciplinary works, with accompanies Fabienne Tabard / Delphine critical than its charming and sophisticated multiple approaches in terms of types of Seyrig’s magical apparition before Antoine form would suggest: first of all, the eternal format, genres and themes. The exhibition, Doisnel / Jean-Pierre Léaud in the shoe necessity to be moved and to contemplate, as a medium that allows different disci- shop as night falls. which does not ever prevent the demand plines to co-exist and resonate together, is for intellectual deconstruction, on the con- the corner stone of her oeuvre. Through During the summer of 2019, Delphine trary, for it makes it more generous and her exploration of architectural, cinematic, Seyrig was much talked about on the occa- sensitive; then, the need for ambivalence, literary and musical possibilities, DGF has sion of the exhibition Les Muses insoumises. which maintains a lack of definition, (but helped to make it the means of expression Delphine Seyrig, between cinema and not uncertainty on the part of the specta- par excellence of the postmodern avant- feminist video organised at the Museum of tor), and which preserves the complexity of garde. It was in 2007 with her participation modern and contemporary art in Lille (LaM the characters and therefore their freedom in Il Tempo del Postino, “the first visual Lille), curated by Nataša Petrešin-Bachelez to remain undefined, and that of the most arts opera in the world”, organised by Hans and Giovanna Zapperi, which looks at her virtuoso works. Vila-Matas adds: “DGF Ulrich Obrist and Philippe Parreno at the feminist activism and her pamphleteer vid- knows that art is one of the highest forms of Manchester Festival, that opera as a genre eos from the seventies co-produced with existence, on condition that the creator es- and a format, and stage performance first Carole Roussopoulos (Scum Manifesto, cape the dual trap: the illusion of the work entered her repertoire and became a source Maso et Miso vont en bateau and Sois belle of art and the temptation to don the mask of reflection in her visual arts practice.