A petition for the Palais de Tokyo? For real? My friends as well as readers I don't know have told me I wasn't clear. I'm sure they're right.
I've just been on the web site of the Biennale de Lyon and realized that ambiguity in discourses is maybe too risky nowadays in art. The smoke screen strategy might not be an good idea anymore.
For example when Thierry Raspail, director of the Biennale, choses a Roe Ethridge photo (below left) to open the site and as the main poster for the event, is he questioning the relationship between art and advertising? Is he taking a critical position?
I will be quoting the online interview, which of course isn't one... It must be the intern again who had a brilliant idea: "What if we did the press release as if it were the interview of the director, it would make it more fun for the reader, more dynamic..."
I've just been on the web site of the Biennale de Lyon and realized that ambiguity in discourses is maybe too risky nowadays in art. The smoke screen strategy might not be an good idea anymore.
For example when Thierry Raspail, director of the Biennale, choses a Roe Ethridge photo (below left) to open the site and as the main poster for the event, is he questioning the relationship between art and advertising? Is he taking a critical position?
I will be quoting the online interview, which of course isn't one... It must be the intern again who had a brilliant idea: "What if we did the press release as if it were the interview of the director, it would make it more fun for the reader, more dynamic..."
"Biennales de Lyon – the rules of the game.
Since the first Biennale in 1991, I have invited my guest curators to think in terms of a key word. The word remains the same for three successive Biennales and is always a common word with topical connections and a fairly vague semantic range, a word capable both of artistic and societal interpretations. The first word, in 1991, was History. Then in 1997 it was Global, followed by Temporality in 2003 and, from 2009 to 2013, Transmission. Biennales de Lyon – the rules of the game"
Then the translator cannot be bothered to finish the sentence, so I'll do it myself. "Each of the curators works with their interpretation of the term according to their sensitivity."
Thus the image of this public school young man with a black eye? What would have changed if other words from the press release had been chosen? Like "successive, vague, societal, sensitivity"?
"As an matter of fact, art today is doing nothing else but telling stories, with new forms of narratives which we too often tend to reduce to styles, but this is much more than this..."
The translator had also "censored/avoided" this last sentence. I sort of guess why in a way... Who is this we he's taking about? We black people? No, of course not, Thierry Raspail is not black. We, the people who tend to reduce art to styles.
At this point I start to wonder if there were two false interviews, as the English version develops "the sacred marriage of European structuralism and American academic textuality", whereas on the French version, you can read:
"On the other hand, it has been forgotten that artists too tell stories: it can be the account of the news, fictions, biographies, diaries, tragic or happy stories... These are new narratives, painted, sculpted or a combination of both, with or without screen, with or without text, that the 2013 Biennale is showing."
I'm confused. Is this a form of humour based on ambivalence or the grey areas within logic? Is this a satire? Is Thierry Raspail playing with a pretend advertising discourse? Is he questioning the virus of marketing rhetoric? Does he use the re-appropriation of speech acts in order to criticize them? Does he imply that the art audience is being told fibs? Is the message to wake up? Is Thierry Raspail cynical? Does he manipulate linguistic codes to make the audience realize how art theory in France has been turned into a gigantic press release? Once again, the next sentence has been deleted from the English version...
"Narratives have literally swamped our environment. Internet and social networks have played a major role in this phenomenon as well as politics, science and poetry. It's now artists' turn to take the floor. The little Prince said: "tell me a story" and the poet drew it."
The Little Prince!! Please! Like Glamour's journalist on Loris Gréaud... Is this a joke?
In my last newsletter about Gréaud, I had also quoted articles from Citizen K, Le Bonbon (a free style magazine), Le Figaro Madame or Rue 89, hoping to give a hint about the satire... here I found the popular ex canal + TV presenter Denisot in Vanity Fair France:
« Stories are Vanity Fair stars and that's exactly what we offer you. »
Since the first Biennale in 1991, I have invited my guest curators to think in terms of a key word. The word remains the same for three successive Biennales and is always a common word with topical connections and a fairly vague semantic range, a word capable both of artistic and societal interpretations. The first word, in 1991, was History. Then in 1997 it was Global, followed by Temporality in 2003 and, from 2009 to 2013, Transmission. Biennales de Lyon – the rules of the game"
Then the translator cannot be bothered to finish the sentence, so I'll do it myself. "Each of the curators works with their interpretation of the term according to their sensitivity."
Thus the image of this public school young man with a black eye? What would have changed if other words from the press release had been chosen? Like "successive, vague, societal, sensitivity"?
"As an matter of fact, art today is doing nothing else but telling stories, with new forms of narratives which we too often tend to reduce to styles, but this is much more than this..."
The translator had also "censored/avoided" this last sentence. I sort of guess why in a way... Who is this we he's taking about? We black people? No, of course not, Thierry Raspail is not black. We, the people who tend to reduce art to styles.
At this point I start to wonder if there were two false interviews, as the English version develops "the sacred marriage of European structuralism and American academic textuality", whereas on the French version, you can read:
"On the other hand, it has been forgotten that artists too tell stories: it can be the account of the news, fictions, biographies, diaries, tragic or happy stories... These are new narratives, painted, sculpted or a combination of both, with or without screen, with or without text, that the 2013 Biennale is showing."
I'm confused. Is this a form of humour based on ambivalence or the grey areas within logic? Is this a satire? Is Thierry Raspail playing with a pretend advertising discourse? Is he questioning the virus of marketing rhetoric? Does he use the re-appropriation of speech acts in order to criticize them? Does he imply that the art audience is being told fibs? Is the message to wake up? Is Thierry Raspail cynical? Does he manipulate linguistic codes to make the audience realize how art theory in France has been turned into a gigantic press release? Once again, the next sentence has been deleted from the English version...
"Narratives have literally swamped our environment. Internet and social networks have played a major role in this phenomenon as well as politics, science and poetry. It's now artists' turn to take the floor. The little Prince said: "tell me a story" and the poet drew it."
The Little Prince!! Please! Like Glamour's journalist on Loris Gréaud... Is this a joke?
In my last newsletter about Gréaud, I had also quoted articles from Citizen K, Le Bonbon (a free style magazine), Le Figaro Madame or Rue 89, hoping to give a hint about the satire... here I found the popular ex canal + TV presenter Denisot in Vanity Fair France:
« Stories are Vanity Fair stars and that's exactly what we offer you. »
Ah well... Is this punch in the face of the private school boy as a symbol of transmission, in the series "History, Global and Temporality" a reference to the recent outburst of gay bashing in France, the ongoing violence against women?
By the way, the subtitle is "In between... suddenly and then". Interesting, isn't it?
Otherwise, there's a sort of "4Homes" trailer on the exhibition's set up and a competition: "Write your own history of art in 2013 words and the best three will be published in Télérama!" (which is the equivalent of Radio Times) and lots of emerging artists.
Don't forget to sign my petition. Yes it is a performance. I'll tell you all about "The biggest painting show - ever" in the next newsletter.
By the way, the subtitle is "In between... suddenly and then". Interesting, isn't it?
Otherwise, there's a sort of "4Homes" trailer on the exhibition's set up and a competition: "Write your own history of art in 2013 words and the best three will be published in Télérama!" (which is the equivalent of Radio Times) and lots of emerging artists.
Don't forget to sign my petition. Yes it is a performance. I'll tell you all about "The biggest painting show - ever" in the next newsletter.
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