When the Maison des Arts Contemporains in Avignon (Mac’A) approached me to take charge, within defined limits, of the 22nd Exhibition of Contemporary Art, I agreed. I have curated the exhibition with a twofold aim: on the one hand, to showcase contemporary Creation and, on the other, to foreground the act of working with Light. These two powerful strands have been my guides throughout my earthly career.
The theme imposed by the exhibition producer, Between Heaven and Earth, became the high point of the event. After two months of reflecting and assessing the magic of the exhibition space (which serves six months of the year as the headquarters of the Festival de Théâtre d’Avignon, and the other six months as a luxurious shrine for exhibitions), I had barely eight months left before the opening.
Since drawing outside the lines of Contemporary Art was out of question, I restrained myself from mounting a photography exhibition, even though I did retain 166 photographs and invited 16 artists who are essentially photographers.
My choices were guided by an overarching unity: the trilogy image / light / creation. In the eye of the public, however, a heterogeneous effect for the eye of the public who needs to encounter all contemporary forms in the works they discover.
Having thus set solid foundations to avoid qualitative slippage that risks undoing the best of intentions, my eyes anchored to the earth and looking towards the sky, I envisioned having numerous photographic series. Following an initial selection of works, I approached a number of authentic artists and skilled users of photographic tools. Each of the artists featured in the exhibition conducts solid research to build a coherent and accomplished body of work that carries messages and emotions, yielding clues, symbols, and sometimes emptiness. All the sets of images on display, thanks to their intrinsic qualities and aesthetic forms, deserve to have a place in art history.
My deliberate choice of these works, all poised for an uncertain future, affords the public a time of reflection, a feast for the eyes, and an opportunity to share—or personally reject—the different concepts embodying our relationships, so varied and so problematic, which we earth-dwellers entertain with the unknown.
Thierry Maindrault
Thierry Maindrault is a French exhibition curator.
Entre Terre et Ciel
Espace Cloître Saint Louis
20 rue du Portail Boquier
8400 Avignon
France
http://www.mac-a.org/
