\u00ab When Christian Berst asked me to work with him on a new project, I didn\u2019t hesitate for long. Our first collaboration was back in 2015, when he invited me to curate the first European exhibition of John Urho Kemp, which, in our shared enthusiasm, we titled \u201cA Bermuda Triangle.\u201d I vividly recall the vertiginous experience of exploring the world of \u201cCrystal John,\u201d as he was known in his day. The man was a veritable mathemagician. After the initial fascination of the work\u2019s form, I became increasingly aware of the mysteriousness of its contents, which grew as we explored his archives. I found a bridge between my practice as a curator working in the world of contemporary art and the art of this creator \u201cspeaking to no obvious audience.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Some view such mixing of DNA with suspicion: \u201ccurators\u201d should busy themselves with their contemporary pseudo-artists and leave Art Brut to the specialists! Personally, I have never liked labels. For me, their place is on supermarket shelves and on the clothes of people that need you to know who they\u2019re wearing. In art, all they do is organise history and fashion different specialities; take a more detached view, though, and we are all in the same place, grappling with the forms that fascinate us. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
That, I believe, is the meaning of Christian Berst\u2019s decision to open \u201cThe Bridge,\u201d a space that can embody this much-needed iconoclastic approach. It certainly does not simplify the history and specificities of Art Brut, pre-modern art, modern art or contemporary art. Instead, it gives them a physical space where they can meet and enter into dialogue, precisely at the point where we are usually forced to cross to the other side. \u201cThe Bridge\u201d is there to enable experiments: what happens when you hang this piece next to that one? How is our pleasure in form refreshed and how do forms acquire a new radiance when they are taken out of their assigned galaxies?<\/p>\n\n\n\n
For this first exhibition, titled \u201cFace to Face,\u201d I propose to take a look at a subject that is universal and obvious, and yet that has become scarce in public space in recent months: the face. Combining works from the enlightened collection assembled by Laurent Nebot and from the gallery, \u201cFace to Face\u201d does not try to theoretise its contents but, on the contrary, is open to the \u201csympathetic\u201d resonances between the works, as we say in music when one string sets another vibrating. How does a piece by Annette Messager resonate alongside a Misleidys Castillo Pedroso, or a face by Raymond Coins when placed beside Philippe Mayaux\u2019s \u201cMissing Link,\u201d and how does a funeral post from the high plateaus of Vietnam vibrate with a scrawled-over face by Jos\u00e9 Manuel Egea? Let\u2019s try it and see. \u00bb<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Ga\u00ebl Charbau<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Exhibited artists:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Arman, Fr\u00e9d\u00e9ric Bruly Bouabr\u00e9, Jorge Alberto Cadi, Misleidys Castillo Pedroso, Raymond Coins, Jos\u00e9 Manuel Egea, Hampatong Dayak, Anton Hirschfeld, Tetsumi Kudo, Dwight Mackintosh, St\u00e9phane Mandelbaum, Philippe Mayaux, Annette Messager, Lubo\u0161 Pln\u00fd, Acharya Yakul, Carlo Zinelli<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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