Nouvelles Vagues — 53 expositions dans tout Paris et au Palais de Tokyo — Palais de Tokyo — Exhibition — Slash Paris

Past: June 21 → September 9, 2013

After «Cold Sun», Palais de Tokyo, along with thirty galleries and art spaces throughout Paris, innovates once more to emphasize the emergence of the figure of the curator. At Palais de Tokyo, Nouvelles vagues (New Waves) is a large-scale event organized by 21 international young curators (hailing from 13 different countries), working individually or in groups, and selected by a jury from over 500 candidates.

Sora Kim, A Circular movement of one point around another, Culture Station Seoul 284, 2012 Courtesy de l’artiste — « Memorial Park »

«Nouvelles vagues» will transform the entirety of Palais de Tokyo’s exhibition space and spread out throughout the city, putting on display the artists, ideas and situations endorsed by these visionary young professionals.

Owing to the efforts of the Comité professionnel des galeries d’art [professional committee of art galleries], this event will be completed through the involvement of some thirty Parisian galleries. In partnership with Palais de Tokyo, these institutions will each invite a young curator to conceive an exhibition within their walls. Together, these fifty proposals will mark an unprecedented moment in Paris’ artistic life and present a fresh perspective on today’s artistic practices.

Mikhael Subotzky, Moses and Griffiths, Film Still 2, 2012 Courtesy de la Goodman Gallery

This event is a unique opportunity to emphasize the emergence of this new definition of the curator, a position that has flourished alongside the artist for the past decades. This essential figure, who organizes exhibitions across the globe, is neither an art dealer nor an institutional curator. He or she does not belong to the academic establishment nor feels subjected to the rules of the art market. Instead, here is a free spirit, a maverick looking for new directions, a nomad who knows no boundaries and is always searching for original poetic, aesthetic and political adventures. Working alone or as part of a group, the curator creates original, temporary environments in which artists from different backgrounds come together around shared goals, ideas and visions. No longer the mouthpiece of a period or a movement, no longer the theorist of a new chapter of art history, they thrive on the challenge of working side by side with the artists.

From Félix Fénéon to Clement Greenberg, the 20th century has celebrated the art critic, best epitomised in France by Pierre Restany. During the 1970s and ’80s, the figure of the ultimate “exhibition maker,” such as Harald Szeemann, Germano Celant or Jean-Hubert Martin, emerged, opening up a path for a different way of curating. Younger figures such as Hans Ulrich Obrist or Klaus Biensebach preferred to align themselves with the original meaning of the word “curator”, from the Latin, curare, “to take care of”, “to attend to”.

Borne on a new wave of ingenuity, independence and risk-taking, this new type of curator has blossomed on the art scene.

“Nouvelles Vagues” testifies to this new artistic ecosystem.

Throughout Parisian Galleries

• “La Distance Juste” — Galerie Georges-Philippe & Nathalie Vallois Curatrice : Albertine de Galbert

• “Terres — Copenhagen Ceramics invites” — Galerie Maria Lund Curatrice : Margaux Brugvin

• “Sur la Mauvaise Pente” — Galerie De Roussan Curatrice : Nabila Mokrani

• “Arrhythmia” (“a Tale of Many Squares”) — Galerie Nathalie Obadia Curateur : Paul Galvez

• “Medusa Caravage Salon” — Galerie Dominique Fiat Curateur : Massimiliano Baldassarri

• “bruissements” — Galerie Isabelle Gounod Curatrice : Léa Bismuth

• “Mark Jenkins, The Studio” — Galerie Patricia Dorfmann Curateur : Stéphane Chatry

• “Dépaysement systématique” — Galerie Jean Fournier Curatrice : Marion Daniel

• “Historico-vagabond” — Galerie Alberta Pane Curateurs : Marie Frampier & Javier Villa

“Available for you” — Galerie Eric Dupont Curatrice : Nina Kirsch

• “Gerald Petit — L’entremise” — Fondation d’entreprise Ricard Curateur : Judicaël Lavrador

• “Société Réaliste — Thelema of Nations” — Galerie Jérôme Poggi Curateur : Matteo Lucchetti

• “It Means It Means!” — Galerie Perrotin Curateur : Tom Morton

• “Alice De Mont : Retroperspectief” — Galerie Dohyang Lee Curatrice : Florence Ostende

• “Forming the Loss in Darkness” — Galerie Praz-Delavallade Curateur : Jo-ey Tang

• “Hyperliens : le QR code comme média vers l’œuvre” — Galerie Véronique Smagghe Curatrice : Sophie Zante

• “L’image pensée” — kamel mennour — Curateur : Donatien Grau

• “La Retenue” — Semiose galerie — Curateur : Damien Airault

• “Degrees of Separation” — Galerie Jeanroch Dard — Curateur : Rod Barton

• “Sanctum Sanctorum” — JGM. Galerie — Curateurs : Les Frères Chapuisat

• “Bloody Mary” — Torri — Curateur : Jonathan Chauveau

• “Indices de réfraction” — Galerie Eva Meyer — Curateurs : Les Commissaires Anonymes

• “Anna Barham, Agnès Geoffray, Nathania Rubin” — Galerie Jousse Entreprise — Curatrice : Vanessa Desclaux

“Interior 301” — Galerie Alain Gutharc — Curatrice : Dorothée Dupuis

• “Art of Living (i.e. Good Bye, Blue Monday)” — Chez Valentin — Curateurs : Luca Francesconi, Frédérique & Philippe Valentin

• “Push pins in elastic space” — Galerie Nelson Freeman — Curateur : Gabriel Kuri

• “Destiny : the B’s” — Galerie Anne Barrault — Curatrice : Isabelle Le Normand

• “∞ > ∞” — Galerie Le Minotaure — Curateur : Mathieu Mercier

• “Looking for Video” — Galerie Claudine Papillon — Curatrices : Valentine Meyer & Marion Papillon

• “Psychonautes” — Malingue — Curateur : Arnauld Pierre

• “Résonances — Painting, Performance, Photo” — Galerie Chauvy — Curateur : Alexandre Vial

• “La Distance Juste, Purkinje effect” — Galerie 1900-2000 — Curateur : Laurent Grasso

With the support of the Comité professionnel des galeries d’art