It’s Funny Because it’s True — Paris-Beijing Gallery — Exhibition — Slash Paris

Past: January 28 → February 28, 2016

Much if not all of the contemporary art appears as absurd … to his contemporaries .

We generally associate the concept of Absurd to the action of laughing, yet in the field of esthetics this could wear different forms: diversion, humor or even nonsense. This notion firstly appeared in plastic arts in the 20th century.

Bertrand Planes, Pigeon, 2014 Pigeon nageur radio-commandé — Taille réelle

We certainly remember Marcel Duchamps and his “ready made” and all the other unconventional works that bothered many intellectuals at that time. Not to mention the DADA movement, who at Cabaret Voltaire cultivated its taste for the absurd with the aim of dethroning an art conceived as canonical. Last but not least, Marcel Broodthaers who throughout his career used the notion of Absurdity in his practice to criticize the Institution.

Even today, these works filled with humor could still appear as enigmatic: the artist undermines our judgment by concealing his intention behind an apparent banality. Aware of the power of ambiguity, the followers of these well-known predecessors learned how to establish a double-reading mechanism.

Simon Nicaise, Cariatides, 2014 Mixed Media — 200 × 300 × 150 cm

The simplicity of form is an illusion , it hides the possibility of a more subtle interpretation. In a system where the uncertainty is generalized and relativism reigns , lying seems true (or a lie appears as the truth). A smiling viewer regain the role he thought he had lost.

It’s funny because it’s true brings together 7 artists from different backgrounds. All bound by the need to express themselves with humor and poetry. Their works echo a reality where everything seems possible , the concepts of space and time are deprived of their meaning. The traditional codes are hijacked and taken to a sublimation of the absurd and paradoxical.

Myeongbeom Kim, Block series, 2015 Polyester and sand — 220 × 82 × 42 cm

“In a world which really is topsy-turvy, the true is a moment of the false” said Guy Debord in 1967 in The Society of Spectacle.

Let’s forget our marks, and allow ourselves to get carried away in a world where truths are not absolute, where the force of gravity can be overcome, where trees do not grow up to the sky, where fish are swimming in a light bulb, where the clocks don’t give the time anymore but become memento mori…