Cold Sun [Soleil froid]
February 27–May 20, 2013
Opening: Monday, February 25, 2013
Press opening: 4–6pm;
VIP preview: 6pm;
Public opening: 8pm–midnight
Palais de Tokyo
13, avenue du Président Wilson
75 116 Paris
Julio Le Parc
Nouvelles Impressions de Raymond Roussel
François Curlet
Daniel Dewar & Grégory Gicquel
Joachim Koester
Evariste Richer
After the “Imagine The Imaginary” season, which drew visitors along in the very wake of the invention of the work, the new “Cold Sun” season at the Palais de Tokyo explores the surface of a strange world where, as Raymond Roussel talking about writing put it, “nothing real must enter.” The same Raymond Roussel who wrote Nouvelles impressions d’Afrique (New Impressions of Africa) without ever having set foot on that vast continent inspires this season, which takes as its dominant theme a paradoxical sun, a sun that as Michel Foucault emphasizes “does not move, [is] equitable to all things, raised for all time above everything,” illuminating a world where “everything is luminous. But nothing there tells us the day: there is no hour and no darkness.” The artifices of such a world give rise to the existence of “undreamt-of spaces,” which the many artists invited to participate in this season explore, each in his or her own way.
Playing with light, playing with forms, and playing with words
Taking this “Cold Sun” as his theme, Julio Le Parc, a long-established artist whose immersive works have influenced the most contemporary of artists, displays his work. On the occasion of his first major exhibition in France since the 1980s, his research into light and movement is used to serve an art militating for the participation and emancipation of visitors.
This attention to increasing the visitor’s field of awareness recurs in the exhibition New Impressions of Raymond Roussel, devised by the guest curator Francois Piron, which clearly demonstrates the influence of that dazzling genius of literature on many contemporary artists. We find hard-to-categorize figures like Mike Kelley, Mark Manders, Rodney Graham or Guy de Cointet, but also Jules Verne or Marcel Duchamp.
Inspired by the same impetus, three monographic exhibitions go beyond the normal confines, whether it be the objects Francois Curlet transforms into “mental tools that keep us permanently perplexed,” the very idea of sculpture deconstructed into images and movements by the artist duo Dewar & Gicquel, or the psyche pulled in every direction by Joachim Koester. Finally, Evariste Richer opens up a new “Artist’s Library” where constellations meet up with mineralogical collections. All this is supplemented by Meltem, a group exhibition of new sculptural practices, devised with the Ecole Nationale Superieure des Arts Decoratifs, as well as two batches of Modules from the Fondation Pierre Berge—Yves Saint-Laurent allowing us to discover Hell as Pavilion a work proposed by Nadja Argyropoulou, and exhibitions by Hicham Berrada, Lars Morell, Pierre Paulin, and Clemence Seilles, then Jean-Michel Pancin, Gauthier Leroy and Marcos Avila Forero.
COLD SUN [Soleil froid]: Julio Le Parc - Nouvelles Impressions de Raymond Roussel: Mathieu K. Abonnenc, Jean-Michel Alberola, Jean-Christophe Averty, Zbynek Baladrán, Thomas Bayrle, Jacques Carelman, Guy de Cointet, Collège de Pataphysique, Joseph Cornell, Salvador Dalí, Gabriele Di Matteo, Thea Djordjadze, Marcel Duchamp, Giuseppe Gabellone, Rodney Graham, João Maria Gusmão & Pedro Paiva, Mike Kelley, Revue Locus Solus, Pierre Loti, Sabine Macher, Man Ray, Mark Manders, André Maranha, Pedro Morais, Jorge Queiroz et Francisco Tropa, Jean-Michel Othoniel, Victorien Sardou, Joe Scanlan, Jean Tinguely, Jules Verne – François Curlet – Daniel Dewar & Grégory Gicquel – Joachim Koester - Evariste Richer - Meltem : Jean-Baptiste Caron, Fanny Châlot, Charlotte Charbonnel, Olivier Chiron, Jérémy Gobé, Stéphanie Lagarde, Julie Said, Giuliana Zefferi - The Modules from the Fondation Pierre Berge – Yves Saint-Laurent: Hicham Berrada, Lars Morell, Pierre Paulin, Clémence Seilles, Gauthier Leroy, Jean-Michel Pancin,Marcos Avila Forero and Hell as Pavilion: Alexis Akrithakis, Loukia Alavanou, Vlassis Caniaris, Savvas Christodoulides, Costis, Dimitris, Dimitriadis, Antonis Donef, Andreas Embiricos, Nikos Engonopoulos, Haris Epaminonda, Stelios Faitakis, Takis, Giannousas, Hollow Airport Museum (Nikos Charalambidis), Lakis & Aris Ionas/The Callas, Vassilis Karouk, Andreas Ragnar Kassapis, kavecs/Vana Kostayola & Kostis Stafylakis, Anja Kirschner & David Panos, Panos Koutrouboussis,Thanos Kyriakides/Blind Adam, Konstantinos Ladianos, Stathis Logothetis, Andreas Lolis, Panayiotis Loukas, Rallou Panagiotou, Nikos-Gavriil Pentzikis, Kostas Sahpazis, Saprophytes, Kostas Sfikas, Christiana Soulou, Thanassis Totsikas, Ira Triantafyllidou, Souzy Tros (Maria Papadimitriou), Iris Touliatou, Nanos Valaoritis, Marie Wilson-Valaoritis, Jannis Varelas, Lydia Venieri, Vangelis Vlahos, Kostis Velonis, Tassos Vrettos, and Takis Zenetos.
