Before the storm
March 9, 2023 – Paris – by Anne Picq
Tropaleum, Danh Vo | Courtesy Pinault Collection
The concept of the storm takes on various meanings throughout the exhibition. Are we standing before the storm, after it or, rather, in the middle of it? In a time when the world is impacted by the effects of climate change as well as political threats and social challenges, the nearly 20 artists that are part of the exhibition invite us to pause and reflect on our relationship with nature and our role as humans, the beauty of the planet and its fragility. Daniel Steegmann Mangrané has for example placed fragile sculptures, made out of delicate branches and leaves, in a dialogue with a series of Cy Twombly’s paintings. While the audience carefully walks through the space, mindful not to touch pieces which could deteriorate at the slightest movement, luminous filaments by the same artist respond to their presence and to climate fluctuations.
Water is at the heart of a huge video and sound installation by Dineo Seshee Bopape. In her work, the Johannesburg-based artist uses organic materials such as soil, clay, herbs, wood or ash, to deal with collective and individual memory, history and nature. She created this piece originally for Ocean Space, a multidisciplinary center dedicated to the oceans in Venice. Dineo Seshee Bopape urges us to preserve water, and connect respectfully to seas and oceans as forces that may convey healing, as well as re-birth.
A storm can provoke either fear or fascination, damages or light, beauty or darkness. This singular moment that each of us has witnessed defines the common thread of “Avant l’orage” (“Before the storm”), the exhibition currently taking place at the Bourse de Commerce, in Paris. This historical building was restored and transformed by Japanese architect Tadao Ando a few years ago and is the latest museum opened in Paris to present the Pinault Collection, after Palazzo Grassi and Punta della Dogana in Venice.
In the rotunda, the visitor is welcome – or rather surrounded – by an impressive site-specific installation by Danh Vo in the Rotunda (until April 24, 2023), made out of trunks of oak trees, which were handpicked in partnership with the French National Forest Department. The Vietnamese-Danish artist also integrated to his massive piece historical elements, often connected to his personal history, as well as living plants. We are here after the storm, and the trees have been destroyed. But at the same time, this work appears as a celebration of nature and of a possible future where plants continually come back to life. Set under the huge glass roof, the trees rise up towards the sky, striving to find a new light.
Dineo Seshee Bopape | Courtesy Pinault Collection
Nature is everywhere, from the small, very abstract paintings of landscapes, forests, skies and clouds of Lucas Arruda to Anicka Yi’s large cocoons, engaging the visitor in a multisensorial experience that questions the relationship between the human and non-human. Human beings are even absent from many works, such as the video installations by Hicham Berrada or Pierre Huygue. What is our role? What is our responsibility? The artists invite us to challenge our so-called power, reflecting instead on our vulnerability.
The site-specific installation by Belgian artist Edith Dekyndt, which will remain in the display cases of the Bourse de Commerce until December 31, 2023, shows how art can express fragility, in the most poetic way. Edith Dekyndt combines second-hand fabrics, pigments, organic materials and objects in beautiful still life compositions. Each installation tells a specific story, rooted in history and nature. She invites us to pay attention with greater humility to fragile materials and objects that had a life before and beyond us.
Maybe the storm is a not a specific moment anymore, but rather a new reality, a new language. Artists can then guide us, helping us to act and take our part, as we try to envision a possible brighter future, after the dark.
Edith Dekyndt | Courtesy Pinault Collection
Hicham Berrada, Présage, 2018 | Courtesy Pinault Collection
Anicka Yi | Courtesy the artist and Gladstone Gallery Photo Aurelien Mole | Courtesy Pinault Collection
Avant l’orage
From February 8 to September 11, 2023
Bourse de Commerce, Paris