Chasing Napoleon
15 OCT 09 – 17 JAN 10
13, avenue du Président Wilson
F – 75116 Paris
Tél : +33 1 4723 5401 &
+33 1 4723 3886
Fax: + 33 1 4720 1531
DAVE ALLEN / MICOL ASSAËL / CHRISTOPH BÜCHEL / DORA WINTER /
GARDAR EIDE EINARSSON / DAVID FINCHER / TOM FRIEDMAN /
RYAN GANDER / ROBERT GOBER / ROBERT KUSMIROWSKI /
PAUL LAFFOLEY / TONY MATELLI / OLA PEHRSON /
CHARLOTTE POSENENSKE / HANNAH RICKARDS / DIETER ROTH /
TONY SMITH / JOHN TREMBLAY /
Opening Thursday October 15th, 2009
11am – 2pm : press opening
8pm-midnight : public opening
CHASING NAPOLEON
1977. Theodore Kaczynski – who doesn’t yet answer to the name Unabomber – lives alone in a small cabin in Montana in anticipation of the “collapse of the technological system.” Paul Laffoley finishes The Renovatio Mundi in the confines of a fifteen square meter atelier, and Dieter Roth works on a long-term project: a photographic inventory of all the streets and houses in Reykjavik (33,000 slides). That same year, the Community Reinvestment Act is passed, an attempt to regulate subprime lending.
BADLANDS
An office is frozen in an arctic winter (Micol Assaël), plants propagate behind walls (Ryan Gander), the same person is repeatedly struck by lightning (David Fincher), money goes up in smoke (Tony Matelli), and a high frequency soundtrack plays only for the dogs (Dave Allen)…. CHASING NAPOLEON recognizes how a rise and fall can spread to reality itself. A wavering of interpretations, an inversion of values, and a paradox of situations… Here everything happens as if the world has slipped into a parallel universe.
LIGNES DE FUITE
CHASING NAPOLEON draws attention to different escape strategies: the Unabomber’s cabin, inspired by Henry David Thoreau’s shelter, is built to scale by the artist Robert Kusmirowski. A drain (Robert Gober) and an air vent (Charlotte Posenenske) urge alternative ways out into the wild. In counterpoint, Christoph Büchel reconstitutes a full-scale spider hole where Saddam Hussein hid in vain after his fall from power.
RENOVATIO MUNDI
CHASING NAPOLEON offers the first opportunity to discover the work of Paul Laffoley. Convinced of his departure from the physical world and his passage through the “fifth dimension,” all in the timeframe of a 1961 electroshock seance, the American artist has generated visionary systems that go way beyond our human limitations. In the midst of despair, Laffoley’s large canvases, encoded with a mixture of ufology and mandalas, speak to us like divinatory messages.
CHRONIQUE D’UNE DISPARITION
Having investigated the dissolution of the appearances and the infra-thin layers of the electromagnetic spectrum in GAKONA and SPY NUMBERS, Marc-Olivier Wahler concludes this 2009 cycle with CHASING NAPOLEON; equal parts art exhibition and instruction manual of how to withdraw into seclusion and take refuge in the limits of the visible.
THURSDAYS OF CHASING NAPOLEON /
MILLENNIUM PEOPLE
LA NEF DES FOUS
Performance given in the exhibition area (10′), based on a novella by Theodore Kaczynski adapted by Gardar Eide Einarsson. In collaboration with the Cours Florent. Followed by Eloge du camouflage, an illustrated lecture on how things are made to disappear in the cinema, by Erik Bullot.
OCTOBER 22TH / 7:30PM
DESTINATION OUT
Carte Blanche to Rob Millis (USA). Projection of Desperate man blues followed by a performance on guitar and voice. In collaboration with In Famous Carousel.
Advance booking necessary.
jeudis@palaisdetokyo.com
OCTOBER 29TH /8PM
MÉMOIRES ANTÉDILUVIENNES
Climax Golden Twins, a duo consisting of Jeffrey Taylor and Rob Millis, shows the film Phi Ta Khon – Ghosts of Isan, followed by a concert and a dj set on 78 tours.
In collaboration with In Famous Carousel. Advance booking necessary.
jeudis@palaisdetokyo.com
FRIDAY OCTOBER 30TH / 8PM
MILLENIUM PEOPLE
Homage to J.G. Ballard, the British science-fiction writer who died in April 2009. Readings by Patrick Bouvet, Emmanuel Rabu/Basile Ferriot, Daniel Foucard, Frédéric Junqua, portradium music.
NOVEMBER 6TH / 7:30PM
MANUEL DE DÉSOBEISSANCE CIVILE
Two lectures on the sources of American anarchism: presentation of Henry David Thoreau by Michel Granger, Professor of American Literature, and introduction to community-based experiments in the United States by Ronald Creagh, an Anglo-French sociologist and historian of the anarchist movement, to coincide with publication of Utopies Américaines (Agone).
NOVEMBER 12TH / 7:30PM
RENOVATIO MUNDI
An innovative performance by Prince Rama of Ayodhya, the psych-folk group from Boston (USA), accompanied by a reading by Paul Laffoley (subject to confirmation) within the artist’s exhibition.
NOVEMBER 19TH / 8PM
TOHU BOHU
Hashima, Japan (2002), Al Qasr, Bahriyah Oasis, Egypt (2005) and Electra, Texas (2008), made by Karl Michael von Hausswolff and Thomas Nordanstad, are documentaries in the form of a meditation on landscapes devoid of all human presence. The screenings will be interspersed with sound improvisations.
NOVEMBER 26TH / 7:30PM
STOP-EJECT
With Stop-eject, Motus offers a series of computer-performed concerts and electroacoustic live performances inspired by The Road to Revolution, a book by Theodore Kaczynski.
DECEMBER10TH / 12AM -12PM
LE DISPOSITIF
A selection of the latest films made by Pacôme Thiellement and Tom Bertay in the context of the Le Dispositif series of visual essays produced by Sycomore, followed by a full retrospective of Le Dispositif.
DECEMBRE 17TH / 7:30PM
DECEMBER 19TH and 20TH / 2:00PM and 7:30PM
INSTRUCTIONS POUR DISPARAÎTRE
A screening devoted to experimental films and artists’ films interweaving geography, technology and disappearance. In collaboration with pointligneplan.
JANUARY 7TH / 7:30PM
VIOLENCE ET CIVILITÉ
Lecture by Etienne Balibar, a French philosopher and university lecturer, to coincide with publication of Violence et civilité (Galilée).
JANUARY 14TH / 7:30PM
MAGAZINE PALAIS /
Issue 10
Entirely conceived around CHASING NAPOLEON
PRESS :
Dolorès Gonzalez
Tél : +33 1 47 23 52 00
presse@palaisdetokyo.com
PALAIS DE TOKYO /
13, avenue du Président Wilson
F – 75116 Paris
Tél : +33 1 4723 5401 & +33 1 4723 3886
Fax: + 33 1 4720 1531
www.palaisdetokyo.com
