Vik Muniz

Imaginária

July 1 – September 22, 2019

As part of Grand Arles Express (satellite program of the Rencontres d’Arles), with which the Collection Lambert has partnered since its creation in 2016, the famous Brazilian artist Vik Muniz returns to Avignon eight years after his major solo exhibition to present a series of works for the first time in Europe.

Entitled “Imaginária,” the series to be displayed at the Collection Lambert consists in 19 photographs of saints as represented by the most renowned artists, such as Saint Agnes by Simon Vouet, Saint Augustine by Philippe de Champaigne, and Saint Sebastian by José de Ribera.

Drawing on installations with incongruous yet common objects—sugar, ketchup, toys, thread, cut-outs from magazines, etc.—Muniz’s photographs represent images from our collective memory. Each one is a new sensory and affective space where we can question the notions of original and copy that have existed since the dawn of mechanical reproduction. By audaciously re-appropriating icons from art history and our media-driven society, Muniz opens the possibility of a new and jubilant relationship with images whose meaning and originality have been exhausted by their reproduction and global dissemination.

With this new series, Muniz pursues past work by questioning the ways in which saints have fascinated us, examining the history of their representation in art. At the same time, he questions how works of art relate to the sacred.

See the exhibition catalogue

Lenders

– GALERIE XIPPAS
– LORENZ AND GÉRALDINE BÄUMER

Special thanks

– Vik Muniz – Renos Xippas et la galerie Xippas
– Sam Stourdzé

The Vik Muniz Imaginária exhibition is part of Grand Arles Express, a satellite program of the Rencontres d’Arles.