Guerlain is back with its 14th contemporary art exhibition, as part of the Parcours Privé at FIAC. The brand will highlight the materiality of the work with the theme: “When matter becomes art”. This exhibition will be held from 21 October to 14 November 2021.
Caroline Messensee, an art historian and graduate of the University of Vienna, has been curating the annual exhibition at the Maison Guerlain for many years and will therefore be in charge of this exhibition.
Through these exhibitions, Guerlain “encourages new forms of avant-garde and artistic innovation and this year invites the public to a new exhibition that explores the question of materiality in art.”
In this exhibition, the raw material – the medium, natural, organic, mineral, artificial, industrial and digital – will be on show, as it is transformed, diverted and sublimated.
The material will not be limited to the physical but also to the virtual. Indeed, it will bring together sculptural works, paintings, photographs, installations and NFT certified digital works. These digital works will be sold within the framework of the GoodPlanet Foundation, presided over by the French photographer, reporter and environmentalist, Yann Arthus-Bertrand. The GoodPlanet Foundation works for awareness-raising and field programmes in favour of ecology and living together.
The profits will be used to finance the creation of a laboratory garden for regenerative agriculture and a 28-hectare reserve of integral biodiversity in Les Mesnuls, the original Guerlain village.
With the theme of the exhibition “When matter becomes art”, Guerlain asserts the inseparable link between art and nature. “The House is reaffirming the extent to which its art as a perfumer is consubstantial with nature as an essential and fragile source and ecosystem. For nearly two centuries, Guerlain’s creative audacity has been based on unique know-how, an unwavering commitment to the sublime quality of raw materials, and a constant desire to innovate, resolutely respecting sustainable balances.”
For the exhibition, Caroline Messensee has invited 21 international artists, both established and emerging on the contemporary scene.
Outstanding artists
Born into an underprivileged family in São Paulo, the artist Vik Muniz discovered works of art in the books he borrowed from a library. Now living in New York, he works with his passion. Using everyday materials such as chocolate, diamonds and modelling clay, he is able to transform any material into a medium. According to him, “vision is above all a form of intelligence and recognition or identification a kind of comfort”.
Born in Pahaou in the Republic of Benin, Calixte Dakpogan creates works composed of metal elements, initially recovered, then welded and assembled to give life to anthropomorphic figures. Calixte Dakpogan underlines that “All my sculptures speak as much about my country Benin, my culture, my environment, my beliefs as about my vision of the world”.
Céline Cléron, known for her work “La Régente”, discovered in a dictionary the polysemy of the word “beehive”, meaning the habitat of the bee like the lace collar of the Renaissance period. Céline Cléron therefore entrusted the bees inside the hive with the ruff. In 2006, the sculpture emerged from the hive impregnated with wax and honey.
The next cultural event “When Matter Becomes Art” will take place at the Maison Guerlain at 68, Champs-Élysées Paris, from 21 October to 14 November 2021.
This exhibition will be open from Monday to Saturday from 11am to 12pm and on Sunday from 12pm to 7pm. Entrance to this exhibition at the Maison Guerlain is free.
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Featured photo : © Constance Valero
