Christophe Lemaitre — Deux pierres retrouvées d’Amedeo Modigliani — KADIST — Event — Slash Paris

Past: Thursday, April 13, 2017

Two found stones by Amedeo Modigliani

Presentation and reading of the catalog Due pietre ritrovate di Amedeo Modigliani, about the discovery (in 1984) of two heads made by Amedeo Modigliani in 1909, thrown into the channel of Livorno (Italy) by the artist. The extension of the narrative surrounding this catalog allows to understand how this object became an uchronie of the art history.

Christophe Lemaitre published The Life and Death of Works of Art, a collection of stories and of theoretical texts, acts as an extension to the 2014 eponymous exhibition at Cneai (Chatou, France) and the panel discussion organized at Treize (Paris, France) in November of the same year. This book, starting with a collection of items that used to be works of art but no longer are, focuses on various material and perceptible continuities crossed by the definition of a work of art. More generally it raises a number of issues on the ontology of the work of art: how does a work of art inscribe itself in the material continuity of the object that contains it and surpasses it? How does the lifespan of a work of art within its object then surpass a human being’s lifespan? Which reasons and which practices govern the conservation and preservation of an artifact?

Christophe Lemaitre is an artist. He lives and works in Paris.