ARC/Musée
d'Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris
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Matthew
Barney
The Cremaster Cycle
ARC/Musée d'Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris
11, avenue du Président Wilson
75116 Paris
tel: 33 1 53 67 40 50
fax: 33 1 47 23 35 98
image: Matthew Barney, CREMASTER 3,
Production photograph, 2002
photo: Chris Winget, Courtesy Barbara Gladstone
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For the first time in France, Matthew Barney presents the
Cremaster cycle
in its entirety, in an unique installation that combines the languages
of
cinema and sculpture.
Matthew Barney (born in 1967) launched the cycle in 1994, with the film
Cremaster 4 which was followed by Cremasters 1, 5, and
2. This
particularly ambitious project, which the artist has worked on
exclusively
for eight years, concluded this year with Cremaster 3.
From his earliest artistic performances, the American artist, and
former
athlete, has tested the limits of his own body. Here he pursues this
project by referencing different biological mechanisms, such as the
ascending and descending movements controlled by the cremaster muscle*,
as
well as the sexual indeterminacy of the embryo during the six weeks
after
conception, prior to the formation of reproductive organs. This lack of
differentiation opens up a realm of potential that the artist uses as a
leitmotif throughout his artistic process.
In the spirit of the romantic idea of the Gesamtkunstwerk (the total
work
of art), Matthew Barney's practice encompasses all media, without any
hierarchy. Drawings, photographs and sculptures accompany the films as
autonomous material forms. In this way, a multi-dimensional body of
work
is elaborated through both space and time.
From the beginning, Matthew Barney has shown a preference for
malleable
materials-petroleum jelly, wax, plastic resin-in a constant oscillation
between form and "informe." This is revealed in the work that opens the
exhibition, Partition, a bar covered in frozen petroleum jelly, a form
of
which appears in Cremaster 3.
Eschewing linear narration and against univocal readings, Matthew Barney
develops a multi-referential iconography in his films. Each episode
takes
place in a specific locale-the Isle of Man, the Bonneville Salt Flats in
Utah, the city of Budapest. Architecture can also be likened to a
character in itself, as in the case with Bronco Stadium or the Chrysler
Building.
For each Cremaster installment, identified by its own emblem and
color,
the artist has been inspired by specific epochs and genres. Thus, in
his
vision Greek mythology mingles with professional athletics, Hollywood
cinema with magic, psychoanalysis with "hard-core" music.
For his exhibition at ARC in Paris, Matthew Barney has conceived an
original presentation that exploits the organic fluidity and circularity
of the architecture. From the Astroturf-covered floor, the padded
passageways, and the intense and uniform lighting throughout, his
choices
work together to provide a comprehensive and coherent character to the
exhibition, thus acting as an extension of the work therein.
*The cremaster muscle (named for its discoverer) regulates the ascending
and descending movement of the testicles in reaction to external
stimuli,
such as a change in temperature, or sensations such as fear.
This exhibition is organized by the Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation in
New York, in collaboration with the Musée d'Art Moderne de la Ville de
Paris and the Ludwig Museum in Cologne.
Curator:
Nancy Spector
Guggenheim Museum, New York
Paris Curatorial Team:
Laurence Bossé and Julia Garimorth
Press: Elsa Guigo & Maud Halioua
Tel: 33 1 53 67 40 50 / Fax: 33 1 47 23 35 98
Elsa.guigo@mairie-paris.fr
http://www.paris.fr/musees
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