From the 21st of Ovtober to the 14th of November, Guerlain seizes the opportunity that is Paris’ FIAC in order to expose its 14th exhibiton; a petic and sensory show dubbed “When matter becomes art”.
Paris FIAC: Guerlain, Art and Matter
Registered in the Private Tour of the FIAC, the new exhibiton, courtesy of Guerlain, puts into visual verse the exploration of matter as a primary artistic medium. In the days of a hyper-digitalised world, where matter is wasted or recycled to the heart’s content, Guerlain hits hard with a thematic tour as inspired as it is poetic.
Entrusted to the curator Caroline Messensee, the “When Matter Becomes Art” exhibition by Guerlain questions the plural, ordinary and sublime relationship between artist and matter.
Caroline Messensee’s spot on path echoes the same innovative approaches of th artists that the exhibition represents. “The artistic matter becomes plural, simoultaneously tangible and intangible, a dichotomy of a forever mutating contemporary world. The grand questionings of this same world reverberate in the use of varied materials: climate crisis/re-and-upcycling; cutting edge technology development; hybridisation/beliefs and religions; the reprisal of symbols and objects of faith/globalisation and the woman’s position; the use of materials that are historically linked to one sex or another, et cetera.”
It must be said that Guerlain has ancred, since 200 years, its perfumer know-how in tune with nature. By making the bee its symbol, Guerlain wears high and proud the values of a perfect nature, that we must contemplate, imitate, sublimate and source with reason and creativity.
The Guerlain Exhibition: Making Matter Speak
Sculptures, paintings, pictures, installations, but also digitally certified works; “the “When Matter Becomes Art” exhibition’s bias positions itself at the opposite of immaterial research and ties itself to the notion of the alchemis artist. We affirm that matter is not only a basis, but also that creative gesture cannot be born only through confrontation with matter. […] Beyond matter, the question that interests pertains more to the transformation of the creative act, the artistic execution, that give birth to the work.”
So who are they, these artists handpicked by Caroline Messensee? There are 21 of them, international, emerging or iconic: Ana Silva, Calixte Dakpogan, Céline Cléron, the emblematic César, Constance Valéro, Dana-Fiona Armour, Georgia Russell, Jean-Charles Blais, Lauren Moffatt, Lee Bul, Lionel Sabatté, Nacho Carbonell, Najla el Zein, Philippe Cognée, Philippe Favier, Sabrina Ratté, Tomas Libertiny.
We cross paths once again with the works of artists that are used to collaborating with fashion and luxury houses; Vin Muniz, Wim Delvoye or even Liu Bolin.
By the way, we owe to the latter an NFT specially composed for the occasion that is this exhibition. A digitally certified piece, whose profit, as well as that of other NFTs created for the exhibition, will be donated to the GoodPlanet Foundation, presided by Yann Arthus-Bertrand. This piece is described by Guerlain as “an unheard of aparatus created by using the cameras from 23 portable phones. It creates a digital tunnel by positioning each lens facing the screen of the previous phone. By passing through this tunnel, the original image is transformed and gives birth to a totally new one.”
Wim Delvoye, for his part, follows his deconstruction of objects we perceive as familiar. Whereas Vik Muniz plays once more with perspectives to encourage our capacity to look at things and analyse them: “vision is above all a form of intelligence and the recognising or identifying of some sort of comfort”, he concludes.
An exhibition that demands that we question our senses, to be discovered from the 21st of October to the 14th of November 2021, at the Maison Guerlain, n°68 Champs-Élysées, Paris.
