An Imaginary Museum
July 11 – October 18, 2015
The exhibition, entitled “Patrice Chéreau, An Imaginary Museum – July 3 – October 15, 2015”, is the first to pay homage to this giant of theatre, opera and film who, since his death in October 2013, has become a national icon in France.
In association with the IMEC (Institut Mémoire de l’Édition Contemporaine), to whom Chéreau donated his personal archives, Eric Mézil suggested, in his capacity as curator of the exhibition, an itinerary associating his notes, sketches and filmed interviews with works of art from various periods, with a predilection for the grand masters of the Romantic movement, including Delacroix, Géricault, Ingres, Chassériau, and for 20th century masters, from Giacometti, with the Portrait of Jean Genet, to Anselm Kiefer and his evocations of Richard Wagner, and from Francis Bacon to Cy Twombly who, like Chéreau, grasped the essence of Greek tragedy.
Theatre, film and opera, the three themes associated with Chéreau’s polymorphous œuvre are, of course, covered in detail both in the exhibition and the catalogue. But the approach characterizing the exhibition consists of submerging the visitor in the artist’s world; every room in the exhibition represent a digest of his obsessions and passions; the man of the theatre ’s writings will be used to illustrate his three preferred artistic fields, describing his political engagement, the AIDS years, the relationship between love and the body, and his passion for classical and contemporary history.
The artists
Adel Abdessemed, Ai Weiwei, Francis Alÿs, William Anastasi, Carl Andre, Kader Attia, Mirosław Bałka, Roger Ballen, Robert Barry, Yael Bartana, Massimo Bartolini, Jean-Michel Basquiat, Neil Beloufa, Joseph Beuys, Barbara Bloom, Alighiero Boetti, Christian Boltanski, Pierre Bonnard, Louise Bourgeois, Brassaï, Marcel Broodthaers, Tom Burr, Mircea Cantor, Frédéric-Auguste Cazals, Claire Fontaine, Guy de Cointet, François-Xavier Courrèges, Berlinde De Bruyckere, Jason Dodge, Trisha Donnelly, Gardar Eide Einarsson, Emir El Quiz, Jan Fabre, Mounir Fatmi, Hans-Peter Feldmann, Spencer Finch, Michel Foucault, Gloria Friedmann, Mario Garcia Torres, Anna Gaskell, Kendell Geers, Jean Genet, Nan Goldin, Dominique Gonzalez Foerster, Douglas Gordon, Loris Gréaud, João Maria Gusmão et Pedro Paiva, Henrik Håkansson, Keith Haring, Mona Hatoum, Candida Höfer, Jenny Holzer, Roni Horn, Jonathan Horowitz, Louis Jammes, Joan Jonas, William E. Jones, Ilya et Emilia Kabakov, On Kawara, Žilvinas Kempinas, Anselm Kiefer, Kimsooja, Július Koller, Jiři Kovanda, Barbara Kruger, David Lamelas, Bertrand Lavier, Zoe Leonard, Claude Lévêque, Glenn Ligon, Richard Long, Jill Magid, Anna Maria Maiolino, Christian Marclay, Gordon Matta-Clark, Allan McCollum, Adam McEwen, Ana Mendieta, Melvin Moti, Vik Muniz, Deimantas Narkevičius, Cady Noland, Damir Očko, Roman Ondák, Roman Opalka, Jean-Michel Pancin, Philippe Parreno, Pier Paolo Pasolini, Dino Pedriali, Yan Pei-Ming, Adam Pendleton, Mathieu Pernot, Piranèse, Walid Raad, Ugo Rondinone, Martha Rosler, Anri Sala, Markus Schinwald, Yann Sérandour, Andres Serrano, Ross Sinclair, Kiki Smith, Nedko Solakov, Jana Sterbak, Pascale Marthine Tayou, Alessandra Tesi, Miroslav Tichý, Wolfgang Tillmans, Niele Toroni, Cy Twombly, Xavier Veilhan, Paul Verlaine, Francesco Vezzoli, Franz Erhard Walther, Andy Warhol, Lawrence Weiner, Rémy Zaugg, Chen Zhen