l`heure des sorcières

L’HEURE
DES SORCIÈRE
S
JEAN-LUC BL
DOLÉAC, CAM ANC, LINDSEY BULL, GEOR
JARMAN, RIC ILLE DUCELLIER, MARY BETGES DEVY & L. DALLIANCE,
ADOLPHE LAL HARD JOHN JONES & MAX H EDELSON, LEÓN FERRAR FLORENCE
MARIE PREST AUZE, EVARISTE-VITAL LUMALLEN, LATIFA LAÂBISSI, BI, DEREK
O
VICTORIA VES N, OLIVIA PLENDER & PATR INAIS, ANA MENDIETA, ANRUCE LACEY,
NA, KIKI SMIT
IT
H, NANCY SPEICK STAFF, CAROLEE SCHNE A MOLINERO,
RO / GUEST C
E
URATOR ANNAMANN &
COLIN
FROM FEBRUA
TO MAY 18, 20 RY 1
14
10, ESPLANAD
E FRANÇOIS MI
TTERRAND
29000 QUIMPE
R
T : +33 (0)2 98
55 55 77
WWW.LE-QUA
RTIER.NET
L’HEURE DES
SORCIÈRES
JEAN-LUC BLANC, LINDSEY BULL, GEORGES DEVY & L. DALLIANCE,
FLORENCE DOLÉAC, CAMILLE DUCELLIER, MARY BETH EDELSON, LEÓN FERRARI,
DEREK JARMAN, RICHARD JOHN JONES & MAX ALLEN, LATIFA LAÂBISSI,
BRUCE LACEY, ADOLPHE LALAUZE, EVARISTE-VITAL LUMINAIS, ANA MENDIETA,
ANITA MOLINERO, MARIE PRESTON, OLIVIA PLENDER & PATRICK STAFF,
CAROLEE SCHNEEMANN & VICTORIA VESNA, KIKI SMITH, NANCY SPERO
GUEST CURATOR ANNA COLIN
FROM FEBRUARY 1 TO MAY 18, 2014
PROJECT
ROOM
BÉATRICE BALCOU « LUXE, CALME ET VOLUPTÉ »
FROM 1 TO 16 OF FEBRUARY, 2014
OPENING
FRIDAY
JANUARY 31
AT 6 : 30 PM
CONTENTS
– THE EXHIBITION
- THE ARTISTS
– PRESS VISUALS
– THE PROJECT ROOM
– PRACTICAL INFORMATION
– WORTH SEEING IN BRITTANY
To organize a press visit or receive further information,
please contact: Sylvie Doré
[email protected] or [email protected]
LE QUARTIER
PRESS RELEASE FEBRUARY / MAY 2014
THE EXHIBITION
L’HEURE DES SORCIÈRES
Artists: Jean-Luc Blanc, Lindsey Bull, Georges Devy & L. Dalliance, Florence Doléac,
Camille Ducellier, Mary Beth Edelson, León Ferrari, Derek Jarman, Richard John Jones
& Max Allen, Latifa Laâbissi, Bruce Lacey, Adolphe Lalauze, Evariste-Vital Luminais,
Ana Mendieta, Anita Molinero, Marie Preston, Olivia Plender & Patrick Staff, Carolee
Schneemann & Victoria Vesna, Kiki Smith, Nancy Spero
Guest Curator: Anna Colin
The group exhibition L’Heure des sorcières touches on the figure of the witch as a metaphor
for alterity and a symbol of resistance to the norm, whether cultural or economic. The
word ‘witch’ (sorcière) is thought of here as a social construct. The exhibition is interested
not so much in the one who practises witchcraft as in the one designated as a witch (by the
law courts, religious institutions or public opinion) as well as the self-proclaimed witch,
who nevertheless does not practise witchcraft.
Over the centuries and in different geographical contexts, the ‘witch’ label has been applied
by those in power to women considered dangerous or bothersome. The designation, with
its suggestions of a potential reversal of that very power, has been directly appropriated
by artists, militants and other agitators – from choreographer Mary Wigman, as early as
1910, to contemporary militant and writer Starhawk. In the 1970s, the figure of the witch
became a potent symbol of the feminist and gay movements in Europe and the United States,
leading many activists to research and rewrite the obscured history of the witch-hunts in
Europe and its colonies from the 15th to the 18th century.
The installation by American artist Mary Beth Edelson, Proposals for: Memorials to
the 9,000,000 Women Burned as Witches in the Christian Era, is characteristic of that
movement. Originally conceived in 1977 for A.I.R. Gallery, New York’s first artist-run gallery
for women, this participatory work has now been reconstructed specially for the exhibition
at Le Quartier. Consisting of a round table, a burning ladder, drawings, documents and blank
cards, Proposals for… invites visitors to express themselves on the subject of witch-hunts
through conversation, writing and ritual.
L’Heure des sorcières includes other pioneers of the feminist art movement in the United
States. Nancy Spero is represented by a diptych dedicated to the Egyptian goddess Nut, the
mother of all the stars; Ana Mendieta by photographs and videos from the Siluetas series,
in which her body enters into ritual communion with nature; and Carolee Schneemann by
a video made in collaboration with Victoria Vesna about sexual taboos and the womancat connections, particularly at the time of the witchcraft trials. The artistic, political and
LE QUARTIER
PRESS RELEASE FEBRUARY / MAY 2014
spiritual positions of these artists run alongside those of the younger generation of artists,
for whom the figure of the witch is still a political and ideological ally.
Camille Ducellier’s 2010 film Sorcières, mes sœurs uses experimental as well as
documentary tools to present five portraits of women and/or feminists, from different
generations, who proclaim themselves witches. Ducellier investigates the subversive
potential of the figure of the witch, as well as the social and human lessons to be learned from
her. In other works in the exhibition, the figure of the witch is approached more obliquely,
that is through subjects and practices generally associated with her – for example, counter
cultures, intentional communities, ritual practices, the return to nature, and the cult of the
Mother goddess (representing earth, fertility and fecundity). Olivia Plender and Patrick Staff’s collective film Life in the Woods (2011) traces an
experiment in communal living in a Leicestershire wood. The participants include folklore
specialists, self-described witches, naturalists and artists from different backgrounds.
What links them is a commitment to an alternative way of living in which the body, the voice
and the relationship to nature are reconsidered and nurtured. Produced specially for the
exhibition, Richard John Jones and Max Allen’s collaborative piece, Develop Your Legitimate
Strangeness, consists of a series of costumes inspired by the aesthetics of Radical Faerie
Fabrications. This was a late 1980s craft workshop attached to the Radical Faeries, an
international counter-culture group founded in California in the 1970s with the objective of
redefining queer consciousness through spirituality.
The return of the witch as a radical embodiment in the Western militant imagination owes a
great deal to myth. The exhibition is an exploration of how the figure of the witch, her alleged
practices and her chimerical accomplices have been invented, represented and circulated
through the centuries. León Ferrari’s L’Osservatore Romano (2001-07) juxtaposes
headlines from the Vatican newspaper with images of heresy and damnation in the work of
artists such as Francisco Goya and Gustave Doré. His collages reference the violence and
psychosis performed by the church in the Middle Ages and beyond. Artist Marie Preston
also interrogates the iconography of the myth and the way it has been peddled, in a new
work about the nocturnal activities of the female seaweed collectors and the way they are
represented in Finisterre folklore in Brittany.
L’Heure des sorcières lastly tackles the intangible, frightening yet fascinating nature of
what the witch conjures up. Two ghostly portraits of women by painter Jean-Luc Blanc
seem to represent a silent and inert lament for the torture inflicted on them, or that they
may have inflicted on themselves. The paintings share a space with three sculptures by
Anita Molinero, which reveal different interventions on materials. One is an assemblage of
exhaust pipes with pieces of melted plastic hanging off them, evoking the lustful, chaotic
world of the prostitute recluse of the village, known as the pirate’s fiancée in Nelly Kaplan’s
eponymous film. Florence Doléac’s Le Salon d’Emmeline Avery could be the sitting room
of Blanc or Molinero’s fictional characters. It lends an eccentric, domestic aspect to the
LE QUARTIER
PRESS RELEASE FEBRUARY / MAY 2014
space. In this salon composed of a coffee table, tartan covered chairs, a modified rubber plant and
a lamp hanging from a gallows, books and documents associated with the exhibition’s themes are
made available for consultation.
The exhibition L’Heure des sorcières follows the residency of Anna Colin at the Maison populaire
de Montreuil, where her research lead to a cycle of three exhibitions and an anthology of texts:
Witches: hunted, appropriated, empowered, queered (Editions B42 and the Maison populaire,
Montreuil)
Publication
L’Heure des sorcières is accompanied by a publication, which will explore the narratives and
research involved in the works on display at Le Quartier. It is jointly published by Editions B42 and
Le Quartier and is due to launch in April 2014.
LE QUARTIER
PRESS RELEASE FEBRUARY / MAY 2014
PRESS VISUALS
Jean-Luc Blanc Miranda 4, 2012
Huile sur toile (5 x 55 cm)
Kiki Smith Sitting with a Snake, 2007
Estampe numérique sur soie (175 x 124 cm)
Courtesy galerie Lelong
Anita Molinero La fiancée du pirate #1, 2012
Pots d’échappement, plastique (158 x 250 x 185 cm)
Photo Aurélien Mole / Courtesy galerie Alain Gutharc
Ana Mendieta Untitled (Chicken piece), 1972
Super-8 couleur, film muet transféré sur DVD, 6’20
Courtesy galerie Lelong
LE QUARTIER
PRESS RELEASE FEBRUARY / MAY 2014
Lindsey Bull Queenie, 2012
Huile sur toile (36 x 29,5 cm)
Georges Devy et L. Dalliance
La Danse des korriganes, près des menhirs
Gravure sur bois, planche 57 de l’ouvrage de Henri du
Cleuziou La Création de l’homme et les premiers âges
de l’humanité, édition C. Marpon
et E. Flammarion, Paris, 1887
Collection Musée départemental breton, Quimper
Evariste Luminais La Fuite du roi Gradlon, avant 1884
Huile sur toile (54,7 x 73,2 cm)
Collection Musée des beaux-arts de Quimper
LE QUARTIER
PRESS RELEASE FEBRUARY / MAY 2014
PROJECT ROOM :
BÉATRICE BALCOU
LUXE, CALME ET VOLUPTÉ
FROM 1 TO 16 FEBRUARY, 2014
Opening : Friday January 31 to 6:30 pm
Pour le Project Room du Quartier, Béatrice Balcou propose les actions à l’encontre des
règles habituelles de la productivité.
À partir des œuvres empruntées pour l’occasion au Musée des beaux-arts de Quimper,
l’artiste convie un petit groupe de spectateurs à des cérémonies inspirées de l’art du thé au
Japon. Le ralentissement et l’attention portés aux gestes infusent, dans ces performances,
un nouveau rapport au temps, au rythme et à l’espace.
Béatrice Balcou (1976, France) vit à Bruxelles. Diplômée en arts plastiques de l’université de
Rennes II et de Paris I, elle participe ensuite au post-diplôme « e.x.e.r.ce » dirigé par Mathilde
Monnier et Xavier Le Roy au Centre Chorégraphique National de Montpellier. Son travail a été
présenté notamment à la Cinémathèque de Tanger, à la galerie Elaine Levy à Bruxelles, à l’Espace
Croisé à Roubaix, au Frac Franche-Comté, à la Fondation Ricard et au Palais de Tokyo à Paris.
Performance tous les jours jusqu’au 8 février. Réservation au 02 98 55 55 77
Accès libre
© Béatrice Balcou. 2013
LE QUARTIER
PRESS RELEASE FEBRUARY / MAY 2014
PRACTICAL INFORMATION
EXHIBITION OPENS FROM FEBRUARY 1 TO MAY 18, 2014
From Tuesday to Saturday, 1:00-6:00 pm
Sunday, 2:00-6:00 pm
Closed Monday, May 1
Admission fee 2 €
Admission free : Sunday, student (under 26), unemployed,
senior citizen (over 65)
www.le-quartier.net
NEXT EXHIBITION TO LE QUARTIER
MARC BAUER / DIERK SCHMIDT
From June 7 to September 21, 2014
Professional connexion: Le Quartier est membre de ACB - Art Contemporain en Bretagne
et de d.c.a. - Association française de développement des centres d’art.
Sponsors: Appart City, Quimper ; Crédit Mutuel de Bretagne ; Keolis-Qub, Quimper ;
Loxam, Quimper ; société Siwa, Quimper.
With the support of the city of Quimper, the Ministry of Culture and Communication, the
General Council of Finistère and Brittany Region.
Media Partner :
WORTH SEEING IN BRITTANY
FINISTÈRE
QUIMPER
Musée des beaux-arts
40 place Saint-Corentin – F-29000 Quimper
T : 00 33 2 98 95 45 20
« Henri Marret, parcourir la Bretagne »
From November 23, 2013 to March 17, 2014
Open every day except Tuesday and Sunday mornings, 9:30 - 12:00 am and 2:00-5:30 pm
LE QUARTIER
PRESS RELEASE FEBRUARY / MAY 2014
BREST
Centre d’art Passerelle
41 rue Charles Berthelot – F-29200 Brest
T : 00 33 2 98 43 34 95
« Le Musée antidote » Florian Fouché / January 31 - May 3, 2014
Goldiechiari / January 31 - May 3, 2014
Cécile Paris / January 31 - May 3, 2014
François Feutrie / January 31 - May 3, 2014
From Tuesday to Saturday, 2:00-6: 30 pm, Tuesday until 8:00 pm
CÔTES D’ARMOR
TRÉDREZ-LOCQUEMEAU
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Domaine départemental du Dourven
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T : 00 33 2 23 62 25 10
Hervé Beurel
From February 1 to March 16, 2014
Saturday, Sunday and holidays, 3:00-7:00 pm
School holidays: daily except Monday
ILLE ET VILAINE
RENNES
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Halles centrales
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From March 14 to May 11, 2014
Tuesday to Friday, 12:00 am - 7:00 pm
Saturday and Sunday, 2:00 - 7:00 pm
LE QUARTIER
PRESS RELEASE FEBRUARY / MAY 2014