O! Watt Up — De Watteau et du theatre — La MABA — Exhibition — Slash Paris

Past: May 18 → July 23, 2017

O ! Watt up ? — Maison d’art Bernard Anthonioz, Nogent Du 18 mai au 23 juillet, la Maison d'art Bernard Anthonioz présente une exposition originale autour de Watteau, à laquelle elle est... 2 - Bien Critique

Through the prism of this legend and leaving the Fêtes Galantes aside — the location of the Maison d’Art Bernard Anthonioz being enough a reference — the invited artists directly or indirectly explore the topic of the theatron — as did Watteau about three centuries earlier.

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As a place where people come to watch, it also raises a dual issue in that it is both a place of representation of reality and a sham, which (re)plays, mimics and puts distance with the latter. At the same time, it works like a magnifying glass of the world.

While theater refers to representation, this Watteau-­‐inspired exhibition intends to reflect on the representation of representation and questions the recurrence of theater as a topic, a characteristic, and a form in contemporary plastic creation.

Vue de l’exposition

Even though a place intended for group experience, transmission, education and entertainment, one should not however forget its subversive nature, in that it also facilitates the distortion and twist of values. Eminently dangerous it would seem.

Kindly loaned by a collector, an original drawing of Watteau displayed at the entrance of the exhibition will work as a reminder of the extraordinary story behind the listing as a historic monument of this Nogent-­sur‐Marne estate at the beginning of the 20th century, given to the state by the Smith­‐Champion sisters in 1944, and today managed by the FNAGP.