SHIRANA SHAHBAZI and AROUND MAX BILL
26 October 2008 – 4 January 2009
32-38, rue des Francs-Bourgeois
F-75003 Paris
eguigo [at] ccsparis.com
SHIRANA SHAHBAZI
26 October 2008 – 4 January 2009
opening 25.10 from 6 to 9 pm
As part of Photo Month 2008 and for the first time in France, the Centre culturel suisse is presenting a monographic exhibition of photographs by Shirana Shahbazi.
Born in Tehran in 1974, the artist came to Europe with her family in 1985 and now lives in Zurich. Her photos, taken at different times on visits to Berlin, Zurich, Los Angeles or Tehran, are a mix of portraits, landscapes or still life, whose subjects and scenes collide with each other making it difficult to distinguish the places, countries or origins depicted. Her installations are a diverse series of formal or conceptual associations of photographs in different and often gigantic formats.
Recurring themes can be seen in Shahbazi’s compositions which are often inspired by the Dutch and Flemish classics of the 17th century or from advertising, like baskets of fruit, shells and still life from hunts, and she often isolates particular elements and works them to the limits of representation.
Her photos have a certain universalistic abstraction, sometimes even veering towards a total absence of subject, apart from pure colour itself.
Even though Shirana Shahbazi draws from her origins to contrast them with western culture, her work refutes and avoids any distinctive identity other than her own.
It is therefore sometimes difficult for the spectator to perceive the time and place of these images which form part of the global representation of contemporary photography.
PROJECT ROOM
AROUND MAX BILL
26.10.08 – 04.01.09
With MAX BILL, ARMANDO ANDRADE TUDELA, WADE GUYTON and PAUL ELLIMAN
PRIVATE VIEW 25.10: 6 pm – 9 pm
On the occasion of the centenary of Max Bill’s birth, the Centre culturel suisse is paying homage to this fundamental artist who personified modernity in an exemplary way by banishing categories. At the same time an architect trained at Bauhaus, abstract painter and cofounder of the Concrete Art movement (he studied under Kandinsky and Klee), and also a graphic designer, typographer and exhibition designer, some of his creations have now become classic pieces.
The “Around Max Bill” exhibition takes a look at how this artist has influenced a new generation of international artists and also verifies if his work or teachings are still inspiring certain artistic practises today. Thanks to a special new bronze moulding of Bill’s famous sculpture Rhythmus im Raum (“Rhythm in Space”) that was created at the end of the forties and welcomed visitors at the entrance of the celebrated design exhibition Die Gute Form (Good Design) in 1949 in Basel, “Around Max Bill” literally invites the visitor to turn around this piece inspired by Moebius’ strip to discover his different contemporary heirs.
ARMANDO ANDRADE TUDELA (Peru, 1975) uses collage, photography, film or sculpture to comprehend how modern and contemporary culture has been assimilated in Peru, and even wider afield in Latin America. The artist looks back on the architectural utopias and experiments of the sixties to the present day and analyses the relationships that have established themselves between the landscape and its use by architecture.
WADE GUYTON (USA, 1972) has developed a body of work reminiscent of the history of art in the 20th century with a penchant for sculpture and abstract painting of the fifties. The American artist works with images ripped from art and architecture magazines, adding his own impersonal and abstract typographical signs using a printer. These techniques therefore raise the subjects of historical inheritance, its representation, transformation and loss of aura.
For this exhibition, he has created a painting that takes up the contrasts and juxtapositions of primary colours often found in Max Bill’s work.
PAUL ELLIMAN (Great Britain, 1961) is a designer with a particular interest in the mutual influences of technology and language. Over the last few years he has been developing the typography “Bits” or “Found Fount”, which is an ongoing alphabet drawn from shapes and letters already in use in other mediums. He believes that art and design are but one, and has been greatly inspired by Max Bill’s teachings at the design academy in Ulm. His work for this exhibition is a typographic piece that is specifically linked to Bill’s train of thought.
“Around Max Bill” has been created with support from the company Holcim France.
Exhibitions curated by: NICOLAS TREMBLEY
Next exhibition
LUTZ/GUGGISBERG
(15.02 – 26.04.2009)
The Centre culturel suisse de Paris is the representation of Pro Helvetia, Arts Council of Switzerland
Handy information:
Open from Wednesday to Sunday / 1 pm – 8 pm / late night Thursday till 10 pm
(entrance by 38 rue des Francs-Bourgeois – at the end of the passage) / free entry
Evenings / 6 and 8 pm / reservation recommended 01 42 71 44 50
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