Motivé, motivé / il faut se motiver / il faut rester motive / soyons motivé
Le Chant des partisans – Zebda
If every demonstration by transport unions were a revolution I’d have bought myself, or, perhaps, been served, thousands of bowls of strawberries and cream by now. The duc d’Orléans’ machinations notwithstanding, common sense tells those with ears to hear that those who have never, ever, do Révolution.
No matter what the would be Révolutionaires shout, it’s more likely to be civil war than millennium.
O! Empty slogan! O! Hollow Révolution!
So, as I have indicated to Karine, who is lately shouting and revolutionating a lot, I do believe, as everywhere and in all times, most of what is supposed gold in all this is but cheap gilding, likely dangerously greenhouse-gas rich, too.
Forget the gilded promises, I tell the woman. Turn down the heat, snuggle up close, let’s take the bike, enjoy producing less CO2, playful-like.
In a time of strike, get a-pumping. Find some fun in it.
Révolution!
Evolve and inverse things ourselves, gather up the pearls rattling under the hooves of the swine, make that silk purse, fix up a lemonade… Etc., etc.
For instance, from our house, the Palais de Tokyo – the Musée de l’art moderne de la ville de Paris – is only 23 miles, there and back.
Lemonade!
Tokyo’s time-stretched contemporary art exhibition Futur, ancien, fugitif, Une scène française is ongoing.
Futur, fugitif turns out to turn the usual on its head. Révolution! In a way.
Agreeable erotic willies flutter through the cramps as Karine and I stroll its acres.
Out of the passel of really fine work on show, the exhibition itself gets the big prize. I say this ‘though I think that every single esthetic worker in the Futur, ancien, fugitif show has bottom. So much so that I can even name particular favorites right off the top of my head as I sit here: Nina Childress, Jean-Luc Blanc, Anne Le Troter, Betrand Dezoteux…
… And I was deeply impressed with how Futur, fugitif’s artists have made their own the sense of the work of the “60s” made something fresh and unique from the soul of comic books, stuff and plastics… Futur, ancien, fugitif forces me to think, maybe for the first time in respect to contemporary art that there is a positive force of “tradition” that comes from experience rather than from special intention... This thought is only one of many possible thoughts Futur, ancien, fugitif gets you mulling over.
Anyhow, in the image of their soulful and sensitive choices, the curators of Futur, ancien, fugitif – a team including Franck Balland, Daria de Beauvais, Adélaïde Blanc Claire Moulène and Marilou Thiébault – put together a brilliant piece of conceptual, material and contextual contemporary art.
After all, stitching together a satisfyingly representative patchwork of the work of living artists born over a signifying 25 years or so, from the whole of France, too, is nothing if not esthetic genius. And though hidden from public gaze by its artistic success, there is the sweat that genuine creators always speak of. Don’t doubt that underneath the glitter Futur fugitif is a tour de force of the toughest-minded type of professional coal heaving.
Karine, who is generally always glimpsing Révolution just flitting around the corner, is exasperated with her own life. In her opinion, humanity hasn’t really got beyond the wheel, fire and thrusting spear, so real human beings résiste. She was of course disappointed with Futur fugitif.
There was nothing new there barking up the shins of the current state of affairs, she thinks. But that isn’t the intention and doesn’t have to be; after all, why should everything be either a potential New Universal Model or a form of entertainment?
Were Karine of my silk-purse-lemonade stroke, as she sometimes can be, she would have noticed that Futur, ancien, fugitif is, just as the curators say, transitive – showing each brick of the span of the years of esthetic development it covers.
It does that really well. As a mix of media, cultural geographies and intentions expressed through time, believe me, you’ll go far before seeing as well-chosen examples of what’s on offer at Futur, ancien, fugitif.
Participating artists: Nils Alix-Tabeling, Mali Arun, Fabienne Audéoud, Carlotta Bailly-Borg, Grégoire Beil, Martin Belou, Jean-Luc Blanc, Maurice Blaussyld, Anne Bourse,Kévin Bray, Madison Bycroft, Julien Carreyn, Marc Camille Chaimowicz with We Do Not Work Alone and Wallpapers by Artists, Antoine Château, Nina Childress, Jean Claus, Jean-Alain Corre, Jonas Delaborde et Hendrik Hegray, Bertrand Dezoteux, Vidya Gastaldon, Corentin Grossmann, Agata Ingarden, Renaud Jerez, Pierre Joseph, Laura Lamiel, Anne Le Troter, Antoine Marquis, Caroline Mesquita, Anita Molinero, Aude Pariset, Nathalie Du Pasquier, Marine Peixoto, Jean-Charles de Quillacq, Antoine Renard, Lili Reynaud-Dewar, Linda Sanchez, Alain Séchas, Anna Solal, Kengné Téguia, Sarah Tritz, Nicolas Tubéry, Turpentine, Adrien Vescovi, Nayel Zeaiter
A bilingual, full-color, hard-cover edition of the Musée de l’art Moderne de Paris’ Magazine Palais N°30, 14 October 2019, featuring “Futur, ancien, fugitive” is available worldwide: ISSN: 1951-672X; ISBN 978-2-84711-114-9.
Futur, ancien, fugitif closes on 5 January 2020.
