Moving. Norman Foster on Art
3 May–15 September 2013
Carré d’Art–Musée d’art contemporain
Place de la Maison Carrée
30000 Nîmes
France
Hours: Tuesday–Sunday 10am–6pm;
Thursdays in July and August 10am–9pm
T 33 (0)4 66 76 35 70
F 33 (0)4 66 76 35 85
info [at] carreartmusee.com
To mark the Carré d’Art’s 20th birthday, Norman Foster has been invited to curate an anniversary exhibition. This is an exceptional show on two counts, both because this is the first time that Norman Foster has curated an exhibition and because it is to be held in a building that he himself designed just 20 years ago.
Norman Foster is a knowledgeable lover of art and with his wife a great collector. The selection is mostly made up of works by the artists that he collects and with which he and his family live on a day-to-day basis.
It includes works by historic artists such as Alberto Giacometti and Alexander Calder as well as many contemporary artists, some of them seldom shown in France. So as to enter into a real dialogue with the building, the idea has been to include in the project, in addition to the usual exhibition galleries, spaces like the Carré d’Art entrance and the stairs.
Some works have been commissioned specially for this occasion. This is the case with a sound work by the American artist Bill Fontana, who has already exhibited at the Tate Gallery London and on the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco, as well as an installation by the Brazilian artist Nuno Ramos, and Olafur Eliasson.
This show takes us into the mind of one of our greatest contemporary architects, inspired by the artistic offerings of Modern Art and more recent emerging creative work. “My approach involves grouping visual themes and if possible establishing links between generations of artists past and present, and likewise between painting, sculpture, photography and videos. In this process, there is a relationship of cause and effect between the architecture of the spaces and the works on show,” said Norman Foster.
A few works selected from the Carré d’Art collection are mixed in with the Norman Foster hanging, most notably with the presentation of all works by Gerhard Richter, and The Winter Journey by Juan Munoz.
