Le Temps De L'audace Et De L’engagement - De Leur Temps (5)

Institut d’Art Contemporain, Villeurbanne

12 March - 08 May 2016

Curator: Nathalie Ergino 

 

129 ARTISTS / 85 COLLECTORS / 157 WORKS OF ART / 12 PREVIOUSLY UNSEEN PRODUCTIONS
IAC / The Association for the international distribution of French Art (ADIAF)

In the context of the 5th edition of De leur temps, the triennial exhibition of the ADIAF, the Institut d’art contemporain presents a new instance of collections of French contemporary art through a selection of artworks that have been acquired since 2012. Reflecting the vitality of French collectors when it comes to contemporary art, this event has the vocation of sharing the passion of these collectors, while showing the extent of their involvement with the art “of their time”.

Since its creation in 1978, the IAC, then called Le Nouveau Musée (The New Museum), placed the artist at the centre of its approach, in an active relationship with people, both volunteers and engaged participants involved in its establishment. In a similar fashion to a German Kunsthalle, the Institut d’art contemporain has the vocation to constantly share its experiences with this civil society, a hard core of people that have since developed into a constantly growing audience.
With this in mind, it was with great interest that the IAC received the ADIAF's proposition to host the project, promoting the idea of establishing a dynamic exchange with these French private collectors, participants engaged in a particular approach, yet positioning themselves far from a speculative logic.

Following the previous editions of De leur temps that have all taken place in museums, in Tourcoing, Grenoble, Strasbourg and Nantes, the Institut d’art contemporain, in its role as an art centre, proposed to consider this exhibition less as a panorama of French collections and more as the activation and highlighting of the connection between the artist and the different links in the “chain of cooperation” of artistic production.
Beyond the 157 artworks gathered here, the goal is to take things a step further. With twelve artworks created specifically for the occasion, the IAC, through its prospective dimension, allows a crystallisation of the relationship with the production of art. How to accompany the artist in the realisation of an original project connected to a centre for art? Here we have 12 sponsoring collectors who participate hand in hand with the IAC in the experience of creation.

Twenty years after the Passions privées exhibition (from December 15th, 1995 to March 15th, 1996) imagined by Suzanne Pagé for the Museum of Modern Art of the City of Paris, the art ecosystem in France has been profoundly transformed. Collectors have since become true participants in contemporary creation, driven by a general interest, as displayed by the ADIAF and its activities.
It is the economic landscape on a global scale in particular that has been radically transformed, with its repercussions being felt in the art world, and in the French scene as a consequence.
The growing industrialisation of contemporary art has even reversed the situation. Having become a true machine, regulated by supply and demand, today's art market in fact generates a division between established artists and lesser known artists, along with a real loss of bearings for everyone involved in the art scene.

What role can public structures of creation and promotion – art centres, FRACs and contemporary art museums – play in such a context? Do alternatives exist that allow contemporary artists to pursue their creation free of the constraints imposed by their investors? Is it necessary for artists to differentiate themselves so as to offer a radical alternative to a mercantile principal, even though we know the principal revenue of visual and plastic artists is generated by the sale of their artworks.
If we can distinguish the quality of the amateur in the noble sense of the term, that of the speculators, is it not the moment for public structures, where this is not already the case, to initiate a synergy with committed collectors?

It is simply a matter here of emphasizing cooperation between the different links in the chain of artistic production – galleries, collectors and institutions gathered around the artists – this could allow a return of this relative independence, and at the same time artistic vitality, something that a changing world like the one in which we live needs so much.

A project such as Le Temps de l’audace et de l’engagement allows the initiation of an alternative dynamic, wherein each term of the advent of the artwork is reevaluated and in particular a vision, other than that of the market on one side and the institution on the other, is made possible. By inciting collectors to not choose an existing artwork but rather the promise of an artwork, the IAC initiates a triangular collaboration around the artist,  referring to a collective responsibility. Beyond the experience of the artwork, the whole of the interior of creation is here to be experienced together. What is valued is the period of prospection, the moment of the encounter, along with that of accompaniment, in opposition to the accelerated rhythm imposed by the market.
What if the time of audacity was, in a changing world, that of a shared commitment, to preserve the freedom of creation?

 

CURATED BY

General Curator: Nathalie Ergino assisted by Magalie Meunier,

With the ADIAF Selections Committee: Bruno Henry, Jacques Caton & Michel Poitevin. 

 

Villeurbanne, March 2016