Lumière noire : Neue Kunst aus Frankreich (Black light : New art from France)
Group show
Artists : Saadane Afif, Dove Allouche, Ismaïl Bahri, Guillaume Bresson, Sophie Bueno-Boutellier, Nicolas Chardon, Damien Deroubaix, Nick Devereux, Vincent Ganivet, Benjamin Swaim, Vincent Tavenne
Staatliche Kunsthalle Karlsruhe / Germany
June 11 - September 25, 2011
Catalogue
Editor : Staatliche Kunsthalle Karlsruhe, Cedric Aurelle
Publisher : Walther König
French / German
2011
Contemporary French art has become increasingly prominent internationally in recent years. The Staatliche Kunsthalle Karlsruhe is taking up this trend for the first time for a German audience and showing a pointed selection of current positions.
In the globalized world, boundaries seem to be dissolving and cultural traditions disappearing. However, the mysterious interplay of light and black has been a phenomenon in French art since the 19th century, which – as the exhibition Lumière Noire suggests – has surprisingly found relevance in contemporary art. The exhibition explores this fascination through twelve coordinated ensembles.
Selected works from painting, drawing, sculpture, and video art – including pieces by Saâdane Afif, Guillaume Bresson, and Vincent Ganivet – reflect the properties and meanings that arise from the contrasting interplay of black and light. These range from the darkening to the dissolution of space, from the abstract value of surfaces to the metaphysical charge of the image.
