La rétrospective des prix 2013–2016 / Klaus Speidel, lauréat 2015, presents Benjamin Hugard: Useful Abstraction

Guided tour at 5pm in the presence of Raphaël Cuir, President of AICA France and Catherine Bédard, Deputy-Director of the Canadian Cultural Centre, on reservation: reservation@canada-culture.org

Launch of a retrospective book of the 2013–2015 prizes published by Les Presses du réel/AICA France
Launch of Sparkling Past by Benjamin Hugard and Klaus Speidel published by RVB-Books/AICA France

Special opening for Nuit blanche on Saturday, October 1 from 6pm to midnight and for FIAC on Saturday, October 22 from 12 to 6pm. Guided tour on October 22 at 4pm, on reservation: reservation@canada-culture.org.

As part of an exceptional partnership with the French section of the Association internationale des critiques d’art, the Canadian Cultural Centre presents two exhibitions featuring the winners of the Prix AICA France de la Critique d’Art: La rétrospective des prix 2013-2016 and Klaus Speidel, lauréat 2015, présente Benjamin Hugard: Useful Abstraction.

The ground-floor gallery presents the retrospective of the filmed performances of all the art critics belonging to the AICA who championed their artists in front of an international jury of peers according to Pechakucha’s timed format since the founding of the prize in 2013.

The 40 or so critics include prizewinners Anne Tronche, Marie-Cécile Burnichon, Marc Lenot, Mathilde Roman, Klaus Speidel and J. Emil Sennewald who championed the work of Laura Lamiel, Miriam Cahn, Estefanía Peñafiel Loaiza, Émilie Pitoiset, Benjamin Hugard and Agnès Geoffray.

The Canadian Cultural Centre presents a work by each of the artists championed by the prize winners. The exhibition places the accent on the role of the art critic, as well as on the multiplicity of personalities, approaches and tones, and the special relationship between the artist chosen from among all potential artists, and the art critic championing him or her. The prize highlights the diversity and dynamism of the artistic scene in France, irrespective of culture.

In the first floor gallery, Klaus Speidel, winner of the Prix AICA France 2015, presents Benjamin Hugard. With Useful Abstraction, Speidel and Hugard pursue the exploration of the various ways to build images, as well as the systems of representation which are central to their respective research. The exhibition confronts the concept of the author with its limits through two ensembles: "Vasari’s Corridor," a series of self-portraits by a generally anonymous and invisible Chinese workforce—and a set of abstract paintings highlighting the “useful” backgrounds of commercial photography designed to stage products of the global trade. The artist appropriates the work of the workers behind the scenes while paradoxically giving them, for this collective project, a starring role that contradicts the very nature of their work.

The book produced by AICA France and RVB Books on the occasion of the prize is presented in the exhibition space as a work of uncertain status. A conceptual object in itself, it was produced choosing rejected images from the collection of a major Belgian advertising photographer, Jean-François De Witte. The presence of the book prolongs the questioning of the author and the frontier between art and non-art that links the various propositions.

The exhibition is organized in partnership with the French section of the Association internationale des critiques d’art (AICA France). It opens the Semaine des cultures étrangères and the festivities of the 15th anniversary of the Forum des instituts culturels étrangers à Paris (FICEP).

More information: www.canada-culture.org
Press: presse@canada-culture.org