The Lyon Museum of Contemporary Art is proud to present the largest retrospective of the work of Ben Vautier, a major artist whose remarkably rich and profuse body of work combines humour and drama, reflecting the realities of life that the artist has made an integral part of his work.
Running from 3 March to 11 July 2010, the show occupies some 3,000 square metres (all the museum's exhibition spaces) and features over a thousand works, from the earliest pieces made in Nice some fifty years ago, via the concepts, performances, word paintings, gestes, to the latest creations. This unprecedented monograph show also includes videos as well as works created specially for the occasion.
The scale of this retrospective (the biggest yet organised: works from 1955 to 2010) enables visitors to experience the full extent and significance of an artistic world that it would be wrong to limit to its most media-friendly aspect.
Curator
Jon Hendricks is an art historian, artist, and Fluxus Consulting Curator of the Gilbert and Lila Silverman Fluxus Collection at the Museum of Modern Art, New York, and curator of Yoko Ono Exhibitions. He has edited and co-edited a number of books, including Make a Salad. Fluxus Scores and Instructions; The Transformative Years with Marianne Bech and Media Farzin (Museet for Samtidskunst, 2008), What's Fluxus? What's Not! Why. (Centro Cultural/Banco do Brasil and Silverman Fluxus Collection, Detroit, 2003), Fluxus Codex (Abrams, 1988), and YES YOKO ONO, with Alexandra Munroe (Abrams, 2000). From 1966 to 1968, Hendricks was the director of the Judson Gallery at Judson Memorial Church in New York, where he gave exhibitions to artists such as Carolee Schneemann, Meredith Monk, Yoko Ono and presented Destruction Art events, including work by Hermann Nitsch, Lil Picard, Bici Forbes, Ralph Ortiz, Jean Toche, Allan Kaprow and Charlotte Moorman. Hendricks is a member, with Jean Toche, of GAAG (Guerilla Art Action Group), which started in 1969.
This exhibition is recognised by the Ministry of Culture and Communication and the Management of Museums of France as an exhibition of "national interest" and as such will receive special government financial backing.
The artist
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Nom de l'artisteBen
Ben is one of the major artists of the 20th century. Known especially for his actions and paintings, his work constitutes a meditation on the deepest aspects of art and, by taking on board everyday reality at its most detailed, manages to make life itself an art form. His work engages with themes as diverse as ethnicity, the ego and truth.
Ben has become incredibly popular thanks to his écritures: written paintings which combine acute impertinence and keen insight.
More information
Projection of documentary films
In the conference room, during the opening hours of the museum, you can see alternating two documentary films of Ben:
Ben sur Ben, 1996
Realised by Sylvie Boulloud and Philippe Brach
Production: Pixit
Running time: 36'30''
L'art et la manière, 2005
Realised by Dominique Gros
Production: Arte France and Image et Compagnie
Running time: 25'30''
Mobile phone video contest: win a work thanks to Ben and the museum
A podium installed on this floor allows visitors to realise a video on the sentence no art without provocation. The videos are then posted on the Internet and everyone can vote for their favorite video. The author of the video receiving the most votes will win the original artwork by Ben "no art without provocation".
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Titre
First floor
To help make this profusion legible, the first floor of the museum is devoted to the oldest part of Ben's work (1955-1976), and includes a wide selection of pieces from his Fluxus period, including all those kept in the collection of MoMA, New York, but also Ben's connections to word paintings, concept, theatre, poetry, movies, etc.
It is divided in several themes: Concepts, Ecritures, Gestes, Fluxus and performances, Introspections, Laboratory, Cars, Stupid Ideas, Exercises on the ego
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Second floor
Bizart baz'art, a monumental work on extended loan at macLYON, installed at the heart of the exhibition on the second floor, is emblematic of Ben's art in that it sums up all the different ways in which he explores the issues, interests, moments and messes of life.
Around the Bizart baz'art, there are more than 20 spaces involving themes such as Money, Sex, Death, Portraits, Small ideas, which invite to discover the extraordinary richness of the work of Ben.
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Third floor
The 3rd floor presents the concept of the ego, that Ben has widely developed throughout his career, through themes such as Truth, Ben on Ben, Philosophy, Self-criticism, etc.
Through several spaces, Ben alternates historical pieces and recent creations, video declarations and actions on the walls of the museum. An internet corner is also available to read his numerous newsletters.
Informations supplémentaire programmation MAC
360° views of the exhibition
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