September 12, 2016
For the last 20 years the Bureau for visual Arts of the Institut français Germany, named Bureau des arts plastiques (BDAP) has been raising awareness of the contemporary French creative scene concerning visual arts, architecture, fashion and design.
To celebrate its 20th anniversary and to introduce its various initiatives and promotional activities for the dissemination of French art in the highly competitive German art scene, the publication Zeitgeist / L’esprit d’un temps will be out in September 2016. 20 representatives of German art scene were invited to express their relationship to French art.
A group of 20 critics, curators, directors of art institutions or project rooms, gallery owners and collectors give their individual image of artistic creation in France and their collaboration with French artists through texts and interviews.
The publication sheds light on the 20-year history of the presence of French artists in Germany and examines issues such as the influence of these artists on the German art scene through their participation in major exhibitions and fairs like documenta, Berlin Biennale, Art Cologne or abc - art berlin contemporary. It presents well-known German institutions that have made known or supported the artists, as well as personalities who have intensified the presence of French artists in the contemporary international art scene. The much-discussed question of national peculiarities is vividly discussed in the publication.
The BDAP initiated, in addition to their general program, which consists in promoting exhibitions, projects to intensify exchanges and dialogue of artists from both countries and sustainably anchor French artists in the German art world. Initiatives such as the gallery exchange Paris–Berlin (2009–12) or thermostat, the cooperation of German and French art associations (Kunstvereine), are pioneers of the currently available programs Jeunes Commissaires and the Franco-German Fund for Contemporary Art and Architecture PERSPECTIVE.
Highlights from the past 20 years have been, for example, exhibitions from Sophie Calle at Arndt & Partner (1996), Pierre Soulages at Martin-Gropius-Bau (2010), Cyprien Gaillard at KW Berlin (2011), Saâdane Afif (2011) and Neil Beloufa at the Schinkel Pavillon (2015), Pierre Huyghe at the Museum Ludwig, Cologne (2014), Kader Attia at dOCUMENTA (13) (2012), Dominique Gonzales - Foerster at the Kunstsammlungen NRW (2016), Camille Henrot at the 9th Berlin Biennale and at Julia Stoscheck Berlin, and Laure Prouvost at the MMK Frankfurt (from September 2016). They are regarded as pioneering milestones of Franco-German relations in the art scene.
Authors of the publication are: Inke Arns (Artistic Director and Curator, Hartware MedienKunstVerein, Dortmund), Stéphane Bauer (Director, Kunstraum Kreuzberg/Bethanien, Berlin), Katia Baudin (Director, Kunstmuseen Krefeld), Oriane Durand (Director, Dortmunder Kunstverein), Florian Ebner (Director of the Photographic Collection, Museum Folkwang, Essen), Fanny Gonella (Curator, Künstlerhaus Bremen), Marie Graftieaux (Curator, insitu, Berlin), Nele Heinevetter (Art historian and founder of Niche, Berlin), Bettina Klein (Director Visual Arts, daadgalerie, Berlin), Judy Lybke (Gallery owner, EIGEN + ART, Leipzig/Berlin), Thomas Olbricht (Director, me Collectors Room, Berlin), Susanne Pfeffer (Director, Fridericianum, Kassel), Kathleen Rahn (Director, Kunstverein Hannover), Thibaut de Ruyter (curator, critic, Berlin), Esther Schipper (Gallery owner, Esther Schipper GmbH, Berlin), Jens Emil Sennewald (critic and journalist, AICA France, Paris), Giovanni Springmeier (collector, Springmeier Collection, Berlin), Bettina Steinbrügge (Director, Kunstverein Hamburg), Michel Stiernon (Sociologist, CNAM Île-de-France, Paris), Thomas Thiel (Director, Bielefelder Kunstverein).
Concept and editorial office: Adeline Blanchard (Head of Bureau des arts plastiques) and Thibaut de Ruyter (Curator, Critic, Berlin).
Production and publishing: Archive Books Berlin (Chiara Figone).
ISBN: 978-3-943620-54-2
Adeline Blanchard – Head of Bureau des arts plastiques
T +49 (30) 590 03 92 45 / info.bdap [at] institutfrancais.de
Press agency:
ARTPRESS, T + 49 (0) 30 48 49 63 50 / artpress [at] uteweingarten.de
Download press material here.