Art and Technology, a Shared Sphere
9 July 2015 – 17 January 2016
A collaboration between Mudam Luxembourg and Musée des Arts et Métiers – CNAM, Paris
Mudam Luxembourg
Musée d’Art Moderne Grand-Duc Jean
3 Park Dräi Eechelen
L-1499 Luxembourg-Kirchberg
Hours: Wednesday–Friday 11am–8pm,
Saturday–Monday 11am–6pm
T +352 45 37 85 1
info [at] mudam.lu
Image: Jean Tinguely, Fatamorgana, Méta-Harmonie IV, 1985. Museum Tinguely Collection, Basel. Photo: Museum Tinguely Basel and Christian Bauer. © 2014, ProLitteris Zurich.
The product of an ambitious partnership with the Musée des Arts et Métiers, the exhibition Eppur si muove (And yet it turns) focuses on the many links that exist between the fields of the visual arts and technology, as well as the decisive influence that the history of the sciences and technology has exercised on contemporary artists. Filling all the Mudam Luxembourg’s exhibitions spaces, and in a spirit of dialogue, it brings together some 70 pieces dating from between the eighteenth century and the present day from the collections of the prestigious museum in Paris and more than 130 works by artists who through the questions that they engage with, the experiences they offer, and the manner of production and collaboration they employ embrace the themes that have run through the domains of technology and science for several centuries.
Opening with an evocation of the emblematic pendulum conceived by Léon Foucault—“the first to physically demonstrate the spinning movement of the Earth,” in the words of artist Piotr Kowalski—the exhibition will be structured in three chapters: Measuring the World, Matter Revealed, and Inventions Applied, each occupying a floor of the museum in several theme-based rooms. Questions tackled vary from celestial mechanics, descriptive geometry, the measurement of time and space, observation of the infinitely large and infinitely small, light, sound and electromagnetic waves, tools, energy, and cybernetics: each a facet of a world that man has always attempted to understand and mould.
By means of the dialogue that it stimulates, the exhibition Eppur si muove also reassesses the dynamics common to both domains, which are often artificially distanced from one another. Freed of the conception of art being autonomous, the works bear out the importance to the creative process of technical and scientific research, collaboration, experimentation, and instrumentation. In parallel and aside from their undeniable physical beauty, the technical objects from the Musée des Arts et Métiers embody the dimension of intuition and creativity that goes hand-in-hand with all scientific research. This unique exhibition thus draws the contours of a “shared space” between artists and inventors, artists and scientists—a place where unique yet complementary gazes on the contemporary world intersect.
The accompanying catalogue of the exhibition will bring together several essays written especially for the occasion. Furthermore, an international symposium chaired by Patricia Falguières, professor at the École des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales is organised in collaboration with the Cnam Lorraine, the École Supérieure d’Art de Lorraine, the Luxembourg Institute of Science and Technology (LIST) and the University of Luxembourg, and with the support of the Fonds National de la Recherche Luxembourg (from 15 to 17 October 2015).
List of artists
Dove Allouche / Darren Almond / Renaud Auguste-Dormeuil / Julien Berthier / Michael Beutler / Mel Bochner / Katinka Bock / Stanley Brouwn / Chris Burden / Nina Canell / Daniel Gustav Cramer / Attila Csörgö / Björn Dahlem / Edith Dekyndt / Wim Delvoye / Ólafur Elíasson / Christoph Fink / Gego / Jochen Gerner / Marco Godinho / Paul Granjon / Grönlund-Nisunen / João Maria Gusmão + Pedro Paiva / Wade Guyton / Rebecca Horn / Éric van Hove / Ann Veronica Janssens / Véronique Joumard / Anne Marie Jugnet + Alain Clairet / Rolf Julius / On Kawara / Paul Kirps / Piotr Kowalski / Sophie Krier / Alicja Kwade / Bertrand Lamarche / David Lamelas / Vincent Lamouroux / Katie Lewis / Jorge Macchi / Daria Martin / Kris Martin / Kazuko Miyamoto / Tatsuo Miyajima / Laurent Montaron / Gianni Motti / Carsten Nicolai / Navid Nuur / Lisa Oppenheim / Damián Ortega / Adrian Paci / Trevor Paglen / Nam June Paik / Miguel Palma / Panamarenko / Michel Paysant / Amalia Pica / Julien Prévieux / Evariste Richer / Georges Rousse / Thomas Ruff / Stéphane Sautour / Lasse Schmidt Hansen / Conrad Shawcross / Simon Starling / Stelarc / Thomas Struth / Takis / Jean Tinguely / Francisco Tropa / Guido van der Werve / George Widener / John Wood & Paul Harrison / Raphaël Zarka
Curators: Marie-Noëlle Farcy, Christophe Gallois, Enrico Lunghi, Clément Minighetti (Mudam), Marie-Sophie Corcy (Musée des Arts et Métiers).
Associate curators: Vincent Crapon (Mudam), Lionel Dufaux, Cyrille Foasso (Musée des Arts et Métiers).
Exhibition under the high patronage of Xavier Bettel, Prime Minister.
On the occasion of the Luxembourg Presidency of the Council of the European Union in the second semester of 2015.
Press contacts
Mudam Luxembourg
Julie Jephos: j.jephos [at] mudam.lu / T +352 45 37 85 633
France
Agence Communication Culture
Sylvia Beder: sylvia [at] sylviabeder.com / T +33 1 42 18 09 42
Germany
Artpress
Ute Weingarten: weingarten.artpress [at] uteweingarten.de / T +49 30 48 49 63 50
