luciano fabro inhabiting autonomy - École nationale supérieure des

PUBLICATION - The National School of Fine Arts of Lyon, France
LUCIANO FABRO
INHABITING AUTONOMY
PRESS RELEASE
Luciano Fabro (1936 – 2007), an important artist in the “Arte
Povera” movement, has incarnated, in his own way, the concept
of autonomy throughout his career as both artist and teacher. He
has managed to maintain both a critical approach and an analytical
attitude which has brought him to question the autonomy of the
artist, the work of art and their relationship to the city. Through
a significant production of theoretical texts, he has defended the
idea that the domain of the arts is the space where liberty is a form
of committed dilettantism and the oeuvre the result of the position
of author.
The book Luciano Fabro, Inhabiting Autonomy brings
together an ensemble of contributions, which propose to
study the reach of the works of art and the commitment
of Luciano Fabro within the perspectives of art today. In
the light of his work, critics, art historians, artists and curators
who have crossed his path – joined by the PhD students of the
School of advanced studies of Social sciences, Paris (EHESS) and
the young graduate artists from the National School of Fine Arts
of Lyon (ENBA) – came together to reflect upon the question of
the autonomy of the artist. Maintaining theory and practice in
a constant state of alert and mutual nourishment is one of the
founding principles of the book.
Luciano Fabro, Inhabiting Autonomy takes us through the
important steps of his career and the ensemble of his work,
LUCIANO
FA B R O
Un habitat géométrique
Dialogue avec Bruno Corà, Rome, février 1983.
highlighting its singular nature and, at moments, focussing in on
specific pieces or preoccupations of the artist. In taking on Fabro’s
relationship to the question of artistic autonomy, and the meaning
he has worked to give to it, Luciano Fabro, Inhabiting Autonomy,
by summoning other epochs and other figures, also aims to place
these questions in a much wider perspective.
This book, developed from the work of Luciano Fabro, is the fruit
of a collective effort between theoreticians and the member artists
of the research group “Art contemporain et temps de l’histoire”
(Acth). A theoretical reflection born of artistic creation, this book
reveals itself to be of great utility, as much to theorists and critics
as artists, in part to the extent that it is entirely translated into
English, rich with an iconography of the work of Luciano Fabro
and accompanied by a complete bibliography established by Silvia
Fabro on the basis of the archives of Carla and Luciano Fabro,
Milan (exhibitions, catalogues, articles, classes, lectures…)
Practical Information:
Published: March 2010
Language: BI-LINGUAL French / ENGLISH
416 pages
Format: 16 x 22 cm
Retail price: 25 euros
ISBN: 978­2­915213­14­0
To order:
Florence Grobet, Enba Lyon
[email protected]
Press contact:
Élise Chaney
[email protected]
École nationale des beaux-arts de Lyon
8 bis quai saint Vincent 69001 Lyon - FRANCE
Research group ““Art contemporain et temps de
l’histoire” (Acth)
[email protected]
http://www.enba-lyon.fr/recherche/acth/
BERNHARD RÜDIGER LUCIANO FABRO, L’AUTONOMIE DE L’ARTISTE
160
161
Io (l’uovo) (Moi [l’œuf]), 1978. Bronze. Installation sur de la pâte à pain lors de l’exposition Fabroniopera,
Luciano Fabro, Palazzo Fabroni, Pistoia, 1994.
dans les années 1980, par exemple, ou encore la globalisation et le refus des cultures
spécifiques de l’art dans les années 1990, ou plus récemment l’abandon de la notion
d’œuvre) cachait diverses formes d’homologation. Pour Fabro, il s’agissait d’un
abandon de ce qui devait rester le domaine spécifique de l’art : ce lieu où la liberté
est un dilettantisme engagé et l’œuvre le résultat d’une position d’auteur.
Pour Fabro, celui qui possède la maîtrise de son territoire « transmet la langue
vivante ». L’autonomie de l’artiste se base sur une haute connaissance de son
domaine, ce qui signifie une extrême autonomie dans les choix de connaissances
à acquérir et des liens à tisser pour faire fructifier le domaine en constante
transformation.
Io n’est pas seulement l’empreinte du corps de Fabro, il est aussi un emprunt
aux Natura de Lucio Fontana. Des formes en terre cuite et bronze produites entre
1959 et 1961 à partir d’une boule de terre posée au sol correspondant elles aussi
plus ou moins à la masse d’un corps. Fontana se laisse photographier dans l’acte
de les ouvrir avec un bâton, créant un trou qui fait penser à un vagin. Mais Io
contient aussi l’empreinte du doigt que Manzoni appose sur l’œuf à la galerie
Azimuth à Milan le 21 juillet 1960, se laissant lui aussi photographier pendant son
action 2. Nous voyons aussitôt apparaître un territoire. Nous sommes maintenant
dans un lieu où savoir et action se nouent. Comme en trigonométrie, nous pouvons
Contributing authors and titles :
Edited under the direction of Bernhard Rüdiger [artist, head of the
research group “Art contemporain et temps de l’histoire” in collaboration with Giovanni Careri (EHESS Paris)]
Luciano Fabro, The Autonomy of the Artist: New Space or Last Entrenchment?
Luciano Fabro.
A Geometric Habitat. Dialogue with Bruno Corà (Febuary 1983).
Bruno Corà (Art historian, Director of the Lugano Museum of Art)
For the Art of Luciano Fabro: Experience of Space, Form and the Artistic Act. Problem Solving, Memory and History.
Doris von Drathen (Art historian).
The Ethical Challenge of Autonomy and its Historical Source.
Véronique Goudinoux (Art historian).
“Suddenly, the Highway Disappeared from Under our Feet” (Luciano
Fabro).
Morad Montazami (Art historian, member of Acth).
Body, Mould, Trace: The Figurability of Experience in Luciano Fabro’s
work.
Giulio Paolini (Artist). For Luciano Fabro.
Émilie Parendeau (Artist, member of Acth). Tautology.
Philippe Louis Rousseau (Art historian, member of Acth).
Why Luciano Fabro isn’t Robert Smithson.
Margit Rowell (Art historian).
The Metaphysical Substance Against the Market.
Benjamin Seror (Artist, member of Acth).
Preliminary Notes for an Ecomuseum for Modern Man.
Sarah Tritz (Artist, member of Acth).
Shapes and Their Need to be Free and Independent.
Transcription of a round table held at Enba, Lyon during a seminar on
the art of Luciano Fabro (October 30 and 31, 2008).
With Bruno Corà, Jean-Louis Maubant, Yves Robert, Bernhard Rüdiger,
Daniel Soutif et Sarah Tritz.
Complete bibliography of the archives of Carla and Luciano Fabro,
Milan
Lucio Fontana, Concetto spaziale, Natura (Concept d’espace, Nature), 1959-1960. Six exemplaires en bronze.
Lucio Fontana dans son atelier de Corso Monforte à Milan se laissant photographier dans l’acte de réaliser
un Concetto spaziale, Natura (Concept d’espace, Nature), autour de 1960.
The National School of Fine Arts of Lyon contains a number
of research groups within it’s structure (http://www.enbalyon.fr/recherche/?lang=eng).
Since 2004, it has developed, in collaboration with the Center for History and Theory of the Arts of the school of advanced studies in Social Sciences, Paris ( CEHTA / EHESS) a
research unit which has, as subject, the construction of the
real in contemporary art. A first step in research around the
ethical question of a “just image” of the real was published by
Archibooks, Paris in 2008: “Faced with the real: Ethics of the
form in contemporary Art”. This publication is an account of
work undertaken with Pietro Montani, André Gunthert, Thomas Schütte, Luciano Fabro, Allan Sekula, Ernst Van Alphen
and Mieke Bal (Isbn: 978-2-35733-025-2).
This research unit receives support from the Minister of
Culture - Fine Arts delegation, within the framework of The
‘Programme d’appel à projets de recherche’.
National School of Fine Arts, Lyon publications
For a number of years, has developed a policy of independent or
collaborative publications: monographs by graduate artists from
the school, collective works, exhibition catalogues, texts based
on seminars...
An up to date list of publications can be found at:
http://www.enba-lyon.fr/edition/editions.php