Symposium – Works that contain other works

While the tradition of artists working on stage design for the theatre, opera and dance has been widely studied, their work on exhibition design is in need of further study and wider dissemination. Historical figures such as James McNeill Whistler, El Lissitzky, Marcel Duchamp or Richard Hamilton made a mark on their era and, closer to our own time, artists such as Laura Owens, Ugo Rondinone or Céline Condorelli have produced equally remarkable displays. Within this broader perspective, we will reflect on how artists have been able to spark dialogue with the works of other artists, often drawn from museum collections, by deploying sculptural processes and conceptual approaches that bring into play the architecture and constraints that are unique to the exhibition.

Our research covers a long period, which takes as its starting point the artist upholsters of the eighteenth-century Salons, but we could have gone back much further, before the specific roles of artist, curator and designer were defined. Today, although these roles have been clarified, some museums and art centres have developed an active policy of inviting artists to take on curator and designer roles, to reintroduce a form of authorship into these peripheral aspects of exhibition and challenge the norms that have been imposed over time. Other projects have come about as a result of spontaneous initiative on the part of artists, some of whom have made it a recurring practice, an integral part of their work.

Historians, curators and artists will compare their research and experiences of these ways of operating on the boundary between art and set design, to make work with and for others.

Thierry Leviez and Mathilde Roman.

PROGRAMME:

Wednesday 4 December
Mapping of the artist’s brain
6.30pm: Opens to the public
6.45pm: Opening of the symposium by Thierry Leviez, Director of Pavillon Bosio
7.00pm: Marc-Olivier Wahler, Director of MAH Genève (in partnership with the NMNM)

Thursday 5 December
Set design as historical dialogue
9.30am: Opens to the public
9.45am: Introduction by Thierry Leviez and Mathilde Roman
10.15am: Benoît Maire, artist
11.15am: Bärbel Vischer, curator MAK
12pm: Discussions with the public 
The artist displayer
2.30pm Martin Beck, artist (videoconference)
Céline Condorelli, artist (videoconference)
Jagna Ciuchta, artist
David Douard, artist
5pm: Discussions with the public

Preview of the Francisco Tropa exhibition at the NMNM - Villa Paloma

Friday 6 December
The artist upholsterer
9.30am: Opens to the public
10am: Isabelle Pichet, art historian
11am: Bice Curiger, Director, Fondation Van Gogh Arles
12pm: discussions with the public

Symposium organised by the Pavillon Bosio, ESAP Monaco, with contributions from the Nouveau Musée National de Monaco.