Interprète. — Frac île-de-france, le Plateau — Exhibition — Slash Paris

Past: March 28 → May 11, 2014

As the first part of a triptych of exhibitions¹ based on the FRAC Île-de-France collection, Interprète. brings together a selection of recently acquired works, sharing in common the idea of performance.

Whether demonstrating the double reading of one and the same Korean song (Thu Van Tran), presenting silent images from the pages of the New York Times of different performers in action (Joseph Grigely), directing the Ikebana practice towards the expression of a literary quotation (Camille Henrot), or converting an age-old Scottish site into a veritable musical instrument (Zin Taylor), it is ultimately a question of play, remake and transposition, beyond the fact of rendering the unintelligible intelligible. The different artistic projects have in fact been prepared on the basis of an already existing reality, which is then translated. Beyond this guiding principle, however, the works on view distinguish themselves by the singular translation being offered to us.

Here the performance is free and thoroughly personal, and thus truly meaningful. Therefore, even if we see an inherent paradox — namely, that while we need the performer to be able to hear and understand the work, the act of interpretation moves us away from the truth — the paradox is as it happens, surpassed… The other aspect uniting many of these works lies in the quintessential connection they have with music. It is clear that these ideas of play, version and remake reverberate like certain basic features of any musical work. Far from merely suggesting this close link, some of the works themselves aspire to the form of music, as they exist in the form of activation. The visual work, seemingly fixed once and for all, is now dreamt about as a piece to be enacted and re-enacted, and thus differently perpetuated. From the musical score to the conceptual procedure (and vice versa), there is but just one step: the artists easily cross the line to offer us pieces to be experienced and re-experienced.

In this spirit, Interprète. will propose a series of interventions and performances in counterpoint to the show. The set of works presented will thus form the basis of an orchestration in the making. “The exhibition” may be regarded as a fully-fledged medium. Interprète. is in this sense the broad instrument which must be played to get the full measure of it. A game permitting the spectator to make his or her own interpretation of things.

With works by Marie Cool/Fabio Balducci, Joseph Grigely, Camille Henrot, Haroon Mirza, Damir Ocko, Pierre Paulin, Lili Reynaud-Dewar, Benjamin Seror, Zin Taylor, Thu Van Tran.

Curator: Xavier Franceschi

¹ Interprète. Le Plateau, Paris; Explore. Le Château, Rentilly; Célèbre. Mamco, Genève.