Situation(s) [48°47’34’’ N / 2°23’14’’ E] — MAC VAL Musée d'art contemporain du Val-de-Marne — Exhibition — Slash Paris

Past: June 30 → September 16, 2012

The MAC/VAL (Museum of Contemporary Art of the Val-de-Marne) is holding a special exhibition bringing together works by ten artists focusing on questions including: How can the body be the focus of affirmation or resistance? — How does one find one’s place in the world as an artist, and in a larger sense, as an individual? How can artists position themselves as subjects in relation to the Other?

This summer, the MAC/VAL will explore these questions from the artist’s perspective, reflecting upon mankind’s environment, our construction of that environment in an increasingly homogenized world, and on the role of the artist. By coming to [48°47’34’’ N / 2°23’14’’ E] (the geographical coordinates of the MAC/VAL, in Vitry-sur-Seine) visitors will be able to follow several circuits centered on these questions.

This exhibition will bring together creations by ten artists whose work is based on a suspension of the differences between private and public spaces. Notions of identity and identities and self-representation will come into play through evolving, performative, and collaborative works. Between appearing and vanishing, camouflage and acrobatics, the works also address questions of community, visibility, gender, colonialism, centers and periphery … questions of affirmation and situation, of positioning, coming and going, images, bodies … Ultimately, the exhibition invites the public to reflect upon the place of art, the nature of art and the role of the artist.

Frank Lamy