Cultural programming - Exhibition curatorship

Exhibition curator, Sixtine Dubly, Claire Jacquet

 

Narcissus or the flowering of worlds

FRAC Nouvelle-Aquitaine, MÉCA, Bordeaux

December 7, 2019 - August 22, 2020

 

From silent to powerful, the exhibition presents the artistic avenues of reflection linked to the Flower (sic. the flowering plant), which deal with ecological, scientific, economic and societal questions, emphasizing the links between the feminine and the political. Abandoning the ornamental aspect of flowers in art, the curators investigate the blossoming of a flower that is no longer an object but a subject. It is spread across 12 exploratory rooms (Being a flower,  A flower of one's own, The floral black, The revolt of the hydrangeas, Politics of metamorphosis, etc.). The provocative title of Narcissus plays on the current ambiguity of ecological, even technological, blindness and its anthropic vertigo. Recurrent in the history of art, the mythological figure of Narcissus is treated by artists as a means of knowing oneself and the world, a desire for metamorphosis. Narcissus is also the flower heralding spring.

 

Artists : Bas Jan Ader, François Aloujès, Manuel Alvarez Bravo, Maya Andersson, Xavier Antin, Nobuyoshi Araki, Yto Barrada, Hicham Berrada, Marc Camille Chaimowicz, Delphine Chanet, David Claerbout, Armand Clavaud, Serge Comte, Jules Elie Delaunay, Florence Doléac, Charles Fréger, Hieronymus Galle, Jef Geys, John Giorno, Sophie Grandval, Camille Henrot, Suzanne Husky, Pierre Joseph, Kapwani Kiwanga, Majida Khattari, Jeff Koons, Suzanne Lafont, Marianne Loir, Mark Lewis, Robert Mapplethorpe, Ernest T., Mathieu Mercier, Joachim Mogarra, Pierre Molinier, Jean-Luc Moulène, Patrick Neu, Pierre et Gilles, Elodie Pong, Naufus Ramirez-Figueroa, Man Ray, Martial Raysse, Marc Riboud, Hugues Reip, Lionel Scoccimaro, Alain Séchas, Shimabuku, Josef Sudek, Suzanne Treister, Thu-Van Tran, Ida Tursic and Wilfried Mille, Jacques Vieille, Jehan Georges Vibert, Herman de Vries, Lois Weinberger, Philip Wiegard, Amy Yao.

For this exhibition of unpublished works by Hicham Berrada, Delphine Chanet, Suzanne Lafont, Suzanne Husky, Elodie Pong benefited from production support from the Frac Nouvelle-Aquitaine MÉCA.