What happens in the opening of exhibition or "Sans vous, rien ne se fera"*

     An opening of an exhibition is always a public event apart from a usually very private and intimate process of creating an artwork or an idea. However, it might be different when you come across the process art or visit a “live exhibition” as it happened with the guests in the evening of May 6th at “Mains d’oeuvres” in the opening of exhibition “Sans vous, rien ne se fera”.

I also dare to think that everyone who has ever attended an opening has noticed that for the people gathered there it gives a lot more pleasure to talk to each other, to drink a glass of punch or wine, to eat a snack or smoke a cigarette outside on the street than actually watch the art. Alluding to this observation I will describe some things that happened to me at this evening, the people I talked to and the processes of art I managed to see.

 

It was so warm I could stay outside without the jacket and the sun was still shining in the beginning. The exhibition hall was white and empty except some ladder left by workers. At 15 past six I met the glances of the first surprised visitors, gave them the catalogue and smiled. It is an international group of artists participating in the exhibition and even more international the list of visitors. When the first performance started which was the concert of the band “Meurtre” it reminded me perfectly the punk-rock concerts I used to attend when I was 15 and “life was hard”. Still I chose the mild weather and mumbling of guests in front of the door over the loud music.

Although there was a “line-up” - the order of artists and art works which appeared in the exhibition hall or in the other places of the building during the whole evening, the idea of an exhibition which is unexpectedly created in the eyes of the viewers, made me remember the childhood Christmas feeling when I knew that by turning around for just one second I will suddenly find the gifts put under the Christmas tree. I got these thrills inside me again after entering the exhibition hall and seeing the plastic signs of Achraf Touloub’s work uncovered and hanging on the walls. I also had it when I saw Baptiste Brevart’s “bicycle” being carried in the hall by two men. It was actually a construction of an old bicycle and a battery that creates energy when you ride it and I noticed a lot of people who didn’t hesitate to try to enjoy it. The installation of Pauline Bastard “Mirage brûlant” created an immediate vision of carefree holidays in the tropical beach where you can imagine only unforgettable honeymoons or passionate affairs happening.

In a completely different way acts Benjamin Blaquart’s animation “Rave Boullé” which tends to transform the surroundings into the nightclub. The animated “visionary ball” by French neoclassical architect Etienne Boullé transforming in to the party place gives a visual as well as audial experience.

Meanwhile I happened to meet a Latvian friend of mine who had seen some part of the “live exhibition” and told me all of this was “mésls”** She didn’t hesitate to mention the artists she called the “real ones” like Marcel Duchamp, Helmut Newton or Caravaggio.

I am not sure if some of the people who received the letter of artist David Horvitz arrived at the opening, but I am pretty sure they did. But maybe they didn’t, because “everything is always happening at the same moment” as artist has written in the catalogue of the exhibition. The map he used to distribute the letters to the Parisians was hanged on the wall in a solemn way.

After being 5 minutes late for the performance of “The Vraoums” I got to observe closely the open workshop of ties by artist Grégoire Motte. At this moment I realized that my boyfriend does not know how to tie up a tie and that surprised me and made me laugh at the same moment. During all the evening in different places I kept seeing the young lady dressed in the badminton player costume. And it was far off all that happened and could happen to each of the participants, viewers, artists, guests, friends and workers. As I was told just before the show “everything matters when you create and when somebody meets the work of art”.

Inga LACE

* Sans vous, rien ne se fera - without you nothing will happen (French)

** mésls – crap (Latvian)