LA FORCE DE LART 02

LA FORCE DE L'ART is a triennial event organised by the French Ministry of Culture and Communication, showcasing France's diverse contemporary art scene and the artists that make it happen. The second event in the series, LA FORCE DE L'ART 02, will take place in the Nave of the Gand Palais, from April 24 to June 1, 2009.

Three renowned personalities will curate LA FORCE DE L'ART 02: Jean-Louis Froment, Jean-Yves Jouannais and Didier Ottinger. Architect Philippe Rahm – acclaimed for his highly creative use of space – has been invited to design an original 'set' reflecting the scale of this ambitious event.

LA FORCE DE L'ART 02 is structured around four space-time zones. Visitors will discover a diverse array of environments, scenes and itineraries, and a wealth of intense artistic experiences. A panorama of events and individual worldviews. A panorama of works, chosen for their expressive power, each the product of an individual artist's quest, outlook and aesthetic choices.

· In the spectacular nave of the Grand Palais, Rahm's 'white geology' forms the first space-time zone. Tectonic plates support an upthrust of volumes, unfurling and spreading in response to the particular expressivity of the individual works or groups of works displayed. A world of matter, an ample, generous space whose movements and forms are shaped like an architectural environment, part village, part landscape. A universe of autonomous artistic situations, enclosed and intimate, or open to the outside world, creating the conditions for a dynamic relationship between the works, the public and their surrounding space, transforming each visit into an intense, poetic experience.

· Other places, other times: LA FORCE DE L'ART 02 spreads out beyond the Grand Palais, engaging in new ways with 'iconic', symbolic sites throughout Paris. Unexpected, astonishing interventions by acclaimed visiting French artists will reinvent the living spectacle of art.

· Throughout the exhibition, guest artists will stage a continuous festival of events and performances in the nave of the Grand Palais: musical interventions, live performances, spoken addresses, borrowings and crossings. Ten evening events promote encounters, exchange and dialogue between artists, celebrating their differences, and the interdisciplinarity of the contemporary scene: bizarre hybrids, where each work and gesture assumes a strange, unexpected aspect.

· LA FORCE DE L'ART 02 also includes a host of private and public-sector contemporary art venues throughout France, contributing a rich new dimension to the series's second triennale.

LA FORCE DE L'ART 02 encourages the public at large, and young people in particular, to explore key issues at the heart of contemporary art, by addressing a wide range of current social topics and debates through a rich vein of profoundly original, diverse artistic experience. To this end, the event features an innovative set of interpretative tools designed to guide and accompany visitors of all ages and backgrounds, coordinated by the Centre National des Arts Plastiques. Specialist mediators will greet and guide individual visitors, offering themed guided tours. Free bilingual audioguides will also be available. Extensive documentary resources can be accessed via the event's dedicated Web site, including video interviews, themed studies, photo galleries and a host of other documents.

Targeted resources for school groups will include guided visits and workshops in a variety of formats, for all ages from 4 to 18, in collaboration with the French Ministry of Education and local educational authorities. Themes and topics will reflect the French national curriculum's renewed commitment to art education, and the history of art. A 140-page catalogue of the exhibition will also be available. Reflecting the event's ambition to encourage the widest possible public to discover the world of contemporary art, admission will be kept to a minimum: the standard tarif is set at 5 euros, concessions 3 euros.

LA FORCE DE L'ART 02 offers a unique, accessible programme of public events and encounters with contemporary artists, at a variety of new venues, reflecting its commitment to encourage new, wide-ranging approaches to today's contemporary art scene.

www.laforcedelart.fr

Curators

Jean-Louis Froment founded and directed the the capcMusée d’art contemporain in Bordeaux, from 1973 to 1996. He is now an independent curator of international exhibitions: the Biennale de Venise in 1990 and 1993; Jean Nouvel architecture at the Louisiana Museum of Modern Art in Denmark (2006); Chanel, l’art comme univers at the Pushkin Museum of Fine Arts, Moscow (2007).

Jean-Yves Jouannais is a writer and art critic. He was editor-in-chief of the review Art Press from 1991 to 1999, and has taught contemporary art at the University of Paris. He has organised numerous exhibitions including the 1995 Venice Biennale; Le Fou dédoublé ('Madness and Folly in 20th-century art'), in Moscow and the Château d’Oiron in 2000, etc.

Didier Ottinger is a widely-published writer on art, and deputy director of the Musée National d’Art Moderne at the Centre Pompidou, Paris. He has curated numerous exhibitions including Parade: Portrait de l’artiste en clown (2004), and Max Beckmann (2002) at the Musée National d’Art Moderne, the Tate Modern in London, and the Museum of Modern Art in New York. The architecture

Philippe Rahm is an architect practising in Paris and Lausanne. He teaches in London and elsewhere, and represented Switzerland at the Venice Architecture Biennale in 2002. His work has been exhibited all over the world (Archilab in 2000, Mori Museum, Tokyo, in 2005 etc.,)

LA FORCE DE L'ART 02 Exhibition open to the public from 24 April to 1June 2009 Nave of the Grand Palais – Main entrance

LA FORCE DE L'ART 02
at the GRAND PALAIS
Kuratoren: Jean-Louis Froment, Jean-Yves Jouannais, Didier Ottinger, Philippe Rahm

Künstler: Boris Achour, Saadane Afif, Kader Ayia, Veronique Aubouy, Faycal Baghriche, Gilles Barbier, Olivier Bardin, Stephane Berard, Dominique Blais, Michel Blazy, Xavier Boussiron, Alain Bublex, Daniel Buren, Butz & Fouque, Stephane Calais, Mircea Cantor, Sonia Chiambretto, James Coleman, Pascal Convert, Damien Deroubaix, Daniel Dewar & Gregory Gicquel, Nicolas Fenouillat, Christophe Fiat, Jean-Baptiste Ganne, Fabien Giraud / Raphael Siboni, Grout / Mazeas, Fabrice Hybert, le gentil garcon , Arnaud Labelle-Rojoux, Bertrand Lavier, Guillaume Leblon, Frederique Loutz, Stephane Magnin, Didier Marcel, Agathe Max, Philippe Mayaux, Annette Messager, Pierre Moignard, Anita Molinero, Asami Nishimura, Orlan , Yves Pages, Philippe Parreno, Jean-Francois Pauvros, Bruno Peinado, Philippe Perrot, Pierre et Gilles, Julien Previeux, Cannelle Tanc / Frederic Vincent, Gerard Collin-Thiebaut, Jean-Paul Thibeau, Berengere Valour / Joris Rühl, Goran Vejvoda, Fabien Verschaere, Wang Du, Virginie Yassef ...