Metamorphosis. Art in Europe now

Exhibition

Ceramic, collage, design, drawing...

Metamorphosis. Art in Europe now

Past: April 4 → June 16, 2019

Fondation cartier metamorphoses paris exposition 12 1 grid Jeunes artistes en Europe. Les Métamorphoses — Fondation Cartier Présentée du 04 avril au 16 juin, l’exposition Jeunes artistes en Europe. Les Métamorphoses fait résonner les voix d’une vingtaine d’artistes de seize pays aux pratiques singulières à la fondation Cartier.

Metamorphosis. Art in Europe now, explores the diversity and vitality of the European artistic scene today. It includes 21 artists who hail from 16 countries and work in painting, sculpture, fashion, design, and video.

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Over the course of a year, the Fondation Cartier pour l’art contemporain led a vast research project that brought us to 29 countries all over the European continent, beyond the borders of the European Union. We met with over 200 artists selected from among the one thousand portfolios. This project began without any preconceived ideas or guiding principles and culminated in a deliberately restricted selection of some twenty artists in order to sufficiently showcase the work of each one.

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Kris Lemsalu, So Let us Melt and Make no Noise, 2017 Courtesy of the artist and Temnikova & Kasela Gallery, Tallinn. © Kris Lemsalu. © Temnikova & Kasela Gallery. Photo © Robert Glowacki.

Born between 1980 and 1994, these artists came to age after the fall of the Berlin Wall, in a continent marked by the recent upheavals that had profoundly redefined its contours.

They are French, Georgian, Greek, Portuguese, British, or Polish. Most of them have studied or now live in a country other than their country of origin. One of the artists was even born outside Europe. Some, such as the Georgian artist Nika Kutateladze, are exhibiting their work for the first time outside their home country. Others, for example the Estonian Kris Lemsalu or Russian artist Evgeny Antufiev, have already attained recognition on an international level, but are presenting their work in a French institution for the first time.

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George Rouy, Stutter, 2017 Collection Hugh Monk, London. Courtesy of the artist and Hannah Barry Gallery, London. © George Rouy. Photo © Damian Griffiths.

The title of the exhibition was inspired by the theme of metamorphoses that underlies the work of the participating artists. Their aesthetics reveal an interest in hybridization, fragmentation, and collage. Drawing on memory, history and folklore, and embracing techniques such as casting, ceramics, and embroidery, they succeed in creating radically contemporary forms using often collected materials.

French sculptor Marion Verboom creates a landscape of columns by assembling architectural elements from different time periods. Other artists propose more narrative works that fuse past, present, and future. Inspired by ancient and modern legends, the pictorial language of the Belgian painter Kasper Bosmans, brings to mind a coat of arms or a rebus. Swedish artist and film-maker John Skoog follows a ritual procession of figures disguised in animal masks and costumes in Bade-Württemberg, Germany.

In his series Regional Education, inspired by 18th century British rococo paintings, Danish painter Magnus Andersen captures the melancholy of teenagers torn between tradition and modernity. Looking back from the future, Swedish artist Lap-See Lam recounts a personal story of the Chinese diaspora in Sweden in a strangely painterly video. Finally, French film-maker Jonathan Vinel makes use of the possibilities offered by the videogame Grand Theft Auto V to portray a lonely young man whose family has suddenly disappeared, leaving him wandering in a hostile environment that is a distorted reflection of the contemporary city.

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Jonathan Vinel, Martin pleure, 2017 © Jonathan Vinel. © Aka Productions.

While highlighting the correspondences between the artists, Metamorphosis seeks to showcase each artist in their singularity. For example, the exhibition places large compositions by British painter George Rouy, portraits of figures with an ambiguous identity, opposite those of French-based Syrian born artist Miryam Haddad. The latter’s works are saturated with color to the extent that we are unsure as to whether these express joy or tragedy. Near Haddad’s work is the intimate and refined installation of the Czech artist Klára Hosnedlová, the powerful and enigmatic work of German artist Raphaela Vogel, and the subtle and ironic film of Portuguese director Gabriel Abrantes. Although at times the exhibition presents artists with similar approaches, these result in unique forms, as is the case with the Italian design duo Formafantasma and Dutch artist Tenant of Culture, both of whom transform abandoned and/or obsolete consumer products into art objects. While the former use electronic waste to create design objects with an intentionally minimalist aesthetic, the latter assembles second-hand garments to create clothes that say something about our society.

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Kostas Lambridis, The Elemental Cabinet, 2017 Collection Carpenters Workshop Gallery, London. © Kostas Lambridis. Photo © Yen-An Chen.

Conceived in collaboration with the artists, a program of events including the Nomadic Nights, a Night of Uncertainty and a series of children’s’ workshops will accompany the exhibition. Every Thursday, the Nomadic Nights event will take participants on a tour of Europe via the performing arts, ranging from “virtual dance” to contemporary flamenco from rap music to video games, and revealing the young generation’s ability to combine tradition and modernity.

The projects presented, performed by artists from countries as diverse as Armenia, Hungary, Ireland, or Lithuania, demonstrate a shared desire to transcend borders, meet the other and create as one.

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Miryam Haddad, La Chute, 2018 Courtesy of the artist and Art : Concept, Paris. © Miryam Haddad. Photo © Claire Dorn.

Participating artists

Gabriel Abrantes (Portugal), Magnus Andersen (Denmark), Evgeny Antufiev (Russia), Charlie Billingham (United Kingdom), Kasper Bosmans (Belgium), Formafantasma (Italy), Benjamin Graindorge (France), Miryam Haddad (Syria), Klára Hosnedlová (Czech Republic), Nika Kutateladze (Georgia), Piotr Łakomy (Poland), Lap-See Lam (Sweden), Kostas Lambridis (Greece), Kris Lemsalu (Estonia), George Rouy (United Kingdom), John Skoog (Sweden), Tenant of Culture (Netherlands), Alexandros Vasmoulakis (Greece), Marion Verboom (France), Jonathan Vinel (France), Raphaela Vogel (Germany)

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The exhibition is accompanied by an ambitious Nomadic Nights program.

  • Arty Farty — European Lab, Les Métamorphoses Event Thursday, April 4, 2019 at 7 PM

    Europe

    The association Arty Farty, which organizes the festival Nuits Sonores and the European Lab Forum—discussion forums on the creative transformations and democratic innovations in Europe—is setting up its Radio Lab in the heart of the exhibition, and inviting a new generation of European thinkers, artists, and entrepreneurs to a debate on the theme of “Metamorphoses.”

  • Lina Lapelyte — Candy Shop Performance Thursday, April 11, 2019 at 8:30 PM

    Lithuania, United Kingdom

    Artist Lina Lapelyte borrows the title of a dirty rap hit by 50 Cent for her performance-opera Candy Shop. Transforming the original hip-hop texts, 7 female singers invite the spectator to a collective meditation on power hierarchies, narrating the story about beauty, gender, and the mundane.

  • Niño de Elche — Antologia del Cante Flamenco Heterodoxo Concert Thursday, April 18, 2019 at 8:30 PM

    Spain

    A “punk” to purists, a “vocal virtuoso” to his aficionados, the magnificently inspired singer Niño de Elche experiments with, rather than revisits, flamenco. With his musician compañeros, “the man who bombarded flamenco,” according to El País, presents HIS anthology of the genre.

  • (LA)HORDE — Keep Calm and Listen to Hardstyle Event Thursday, April 25, 2019 at 7 PM

    Europe

    Continuing its exploration of the rebellion of bodies, the (LA)HORDE collective takes the audience on a voyage of discovery during an exceptional late-night opening, where the jumpers of their successful production TO DA BONE take over the Fondation Cartier’s exhibition spaces and garden.

  • Entretiens Infinis — Dirigé par Hans Ulrich Obrist Event Friday, April 26, 2019 at 6 PM

    Hans Ulrich Obrist continues his Entretiens Infinis [Infinite Interviews] at the Fondation Cartier, leading a debate marathon during which he talks with the exhibition’s artists.

  • Revue immersion — D’autres mondes Event Thursday, May 2, 2019 at 7 PM

    Europe

    Immersion is the first French print journal to consider the video game as a cultural phenomenon and a creative discipline. In a video game room set up in the heart of the exhibition, the audience—composed of both experts and amateurs—is invited to explore the creative diversity of video games alongside young European developers.

  • Action héro — Oh Europa Event Thursday, May 9, 2019 at 2 PM

    United Kingdom

    For over six months, James Stenhouse and Gemma Paintin of the Action Hero collective travelled 32,000 kilometers across 33 countries in Europe, in their equipped motorhome to record love songs performed by the people they met. The collective sets up RadiOh Europa at the core of the exhibition: a radio station broadcasting these global hits and traditional melodies from all over the continent.

  • Saudaa Group — L’Orgue-Paysage Concert Thursday, May 16, 2019 at 8:30 PM

    Armenia, France, Georgia, Hungary, Ireland

    Alexis Paul (Saudaá Group) and his barrel organ lead a nomadic and poetic adventure, aimed at discovering popular compositions and repertoires from around the world. With Orgue-Paysage he extends European territory all the way to the Caucasus by bringing together the Armenian duduk, Georgian polyphonies, Irish bagpipes, and Hungarian a cappella, for an evening mixing folk songs and laments.

  • Rita Pauls et Ant Hampton — Mouth Piece Performance Wednesday, May 22, 2019 at 8:30 PM

    Argentina, Germany, United Kingdom

    Over the course of a week, artists Rita Pauls and Ant Hampton hitchhiked across Germany to learn German, a language neither speaks. They asked each person they met the same question: “In your opinion, what should be said?” Mouth Piece captures and expresses these silences and words, reflecting beliefs, aspirations, and exasperations.

    A Nomadic Night programmed with the Théâtre de la Ville — Paris as part of Chantiers d’Europe.

  • Aloïse Sauvage — Que rien ne s’arrête Performance Thursday, June 6, 2019 at 8:30 PM

    France

    A revelation of the Transmusicales de Rennes 2018, the young rap artist Aloïse Sauvage takes over the Fondation Cartier garden with her consuming passion, her wild energy, and a few surprise guests for an incandescent performance.

  • Meriem Bennani — Avatar Idol Event Thursday, June 13, 2019 at 8:30 PM

    Morocco, France

    Digitalomaniac artist Meriem Bennani has conceived Avatar Idol, a live virtual dance battle incorporating motion capture. Cheered on by a host from the future and under the watchful eyes of a jury, six freestyle dancers activate their digital avatar, accompanied by music. An offbeat tribute to globalized popular culture.

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261, boulevard Raspail

75014 Paris

T. 01 42 18 56 50 — F. 01 42 18 56 52

Official website

Raspail

Opening hours

Every day except Monday, 11 AM – 8 PM
Late night on Tuesday until 10 PM

Admission fee

Full rate €10,50 — Concessions €7.00

The artists

And 11 others…