A Serpentine Gesture and Other Prophecies

A Serpentine Gesture and Other Prophecies
15 January – 1 May 2011

Opening:
Friday January 14th at 6.30pm

Artists: Benoît Billotte, Iñaki Bonillas, Antony Gormley, Monika Grzymala, Werner Herzog, Corey McCorkle, Pierre-Étienne Morelle, Pratchaya Phinthong, Ian Wilson

49 NORD 6 EST
Frac Lorraine
1bis rue des Trinitaires
F-57000 Metz
France
T 0033 (0)3 87 74 20 02
info [​at​] fraclorraine.org
www.fraclorraine.org

Global warming, reversal of the poles, decrease in solar activity, tsunamis, or earthquakes… Natural disasters and intensive human activity converge to bring about the end of the world, as foretold, time and time again, jointly by the media and the scientific community. It is no longer the death of our sun, expected to take place billions of years from now, which looms on the horizon, but a quicker apocalypse which has already been envisioned in detail by Hollywood. The next rendezvous, December 21, 2012: the Maya calendar will come to an end as will our world… However, if it could be postponed until 2017, and if we give credit to the rumor spread over the internet, perhaps we will be lucky enough to get transported to Mars by means of a magnetic field and thus escape the anticipated collision between Earth and another planet (P. Phinthong).

World history could be summed up as a simple timeline marked by a succession of key events. This line circumscribes, and nearly has mastery over, the temporality of the world: its origin and its disappearance logically bind the two extremes. The horizon of a shipwreck is here diffracted in silence (I. Bonillas) and calls for the lessons of darkness (W. Herzog): an awe-inspiring tragedy of a world devastated by the fires of the apocalypse.

Starting from the observation of nature, transmitted by religions, or described by physical sciences, the circle, the spiral, and the curve offer other models for conceiving temporality. They inspire alternative hypotheses and conjure up other images: the infinitesimal and the infinitely large may come together in cosmological time (B. Billotte). A solar eclipse becomes a mystical aureole (C. McCorkle); before a fallen star, Sisyphus tirelessly repeats his absurd existential chore (P.-E. Morelle). And when time becomes the fourth dimension, we follow the flow in order to be swept up into a recursive whirlwind (M. Grzymala) or to become one with the universe (A. Gormley).

What does time consist of, then (I. Wilson)? Crossing physical, historical, biological, and mythological time, the artists project us into a dream time.

EVENTS
- Frac in live: Friday 14th January from 6.30 to 9.30pm :
Rolling / Frac, Michiel Alberts, performer
A total experience of duration launched by the body in passage…
- Parallel Glances: from January to May :
Nine invitations have been extended by FRAC and its partners to disseminators of passionate and fascinating ideas : Tiago Bartolomeu Costa, Monika Grzymala, Tiago Guedes, Étienne Klein, Chloé Delaume, Jean-Claude Eloy, Noëlle Renaude, … They will make our heads spin, challenge our prejudices, and debunk our misconceptions!
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Discover our Parallel Glances online, at www.fraclorraine.org / Section: Explore

ACCESS : 49 NORD 6 EST – Frac Lorraine, 1bis rue des Trinitaires, Metz (FR)
Admission free. Tuesday-Friday: 2-7pm and Saturday & Sunday: 11am-7pm
Group visits in English on request mediation@fraclorraine.org

LOANERS : La Colección Jumex, Mexico ; Werner Herzog Film ; Xavier Hufkens, Brussels

As part of Année du Mexique en France organized by Institut français and ProMéxico.

The FRAC Lorraine enjoys financial backing from the Lorraine Regional Council and the Lorraine Region Cultural Affairs Department (DRAC) at the Ministry of Culture and Communication.

*Image above:
Photograph by Allard Bovenberg, Amsterdam.
Courtesy Xavier Hufkens, Brussels, Belgium.
(c) Antony Gormley.