La Musée — Galerie Italienne — Exhibition — Slash Paris

Past: May 11 → July 11, 2020

Galerie Italienne presents « la Musée », a group show which brings together eleven internationally renowned female artists, on a proposal from the young Azerbaijani curator Azad Asifovich.

To this day, museum collections are made up of 80% male artists compared to 20% female artists.
The main idea behind this exhibition is to present the opposite, 80% female artists, confirmed or emerging, alongside 20% male artists.

With works by Sylvie Auvray, Anne Deguelle, Helen Frankenthaler, Francesca Grilli, Ghazel, Sofie Muller, Lulù Nuti, Vera Röhm, Nina Roos,
Kiki Smith, Hema Upadhyay, Joseph Beuys et Xavier Veilhan.

“La Musée” is a clean slate offered to the exhibition curator Azad Asifovich, working with the Galerie Italienne, in Paris. What is involved is an in situ project questioning the relation between the museum as institution and its status.

In the manner of a pragmatic show, inspired by the method theorized by Chantal Pontbriand, the idea stems originally from a desire to highlight Italian artists. Then, taking into account the cosmopolitan dimension of the artists’ differing careers, the idea developed towards a broader representation, going beyond geopolitical boundaries.
The choice of a proportionately inverted digital relation here presents a reversal of the usual men/women numbers in the present-day art world.

The visit’s circuit reproduces that of plausible and ordinary contemporary art: the plural nature of the techniques and approaches used is underscored in a smooth and naïve way, involving no apparent risks. As a presentation in the fictitious form of a permanent exhibition, the semantic content of museum codes is called into question.

In ancient Greek, the museum was the abode dedicated to the Muses. It paid tribute to personifications of the arts, both spiritual and invisible. The museum was traditionally a prestigious and sacred place, but paradoxically popular and accessible.

The value systems underwritten by this model institution are, in a word, criticized in an exhibition held in a gallery that is itself self-critical.

The exhibition’s content also plays a part: a wink at the contemporary scene, by way of the network of organizers, and the way they see things.