The Centre culturel suisse in Paris is now undergoing renovations until 2024, and an On Tour program is being presented throughout France, with a stop in Rennes from May 5-14, 2023.
On this occasion, Centre culturel suisse is partnering up with 40mcube, La Criée centre d’art contemporain and Frac Bretagne around three exhibitions starting on February 2 and 3, 2023.
Judith Kakon, Grand Air
February 4–May 14, 2023
Opening: February 3
La Criée centre d’art contemporain
Judith Kakon’s first solo exhibition in France is on display at La Criée Centre d’Art Contemporain. Following the holiday season, Judith Kakon is displaying a portion of the City of Rennes’ Christmas illuminations. The decorations are presented dormant, that is, turned off and laid out. Visitors perceive these samples of urban heritage in a new light after being removed from their usual environment and metamorphosed in terms of shape and function. Judith Kakon’s initiative has a double resonance in the current context: in an era of energy scarcity, the dormant lights of this use/reuse of local resources glow with a powerful symbolic force.
Curators: Claire Hoffmann & Sophie Kaplan
Basim Magdy, The Year Spring Arrived in September
February 3–May 14, 2023
Opening: February 2
Frac Bretagne
Basim Magdy’s solo exhibition at the Frac Bretagne is an exploration of the work of this interesting Egyptian artist. In his work, the picture is viewed as part of a larger field that extends to allow him to analyze his surroundings and build parallel realities midway between embodied research and critical sublimation. The artist composes from samples of the world in his paintings, photography, and films. He pulls images, gleans fragments, moulds and bends them as he walks. He experiments with reality, much like a scientist, in order to build parallel realities. Throughout his work, he reveals the very complicated and tangled constellations of contemporary social and political power systems, as well as the ways in which they may bring the world to an end. Basim Magdy’s critical fictions’ dramatic tension is thus built on current facts and hinges on counter-narrative plots constructed by the artist and played out against the backdrop of life’s absurdity and banality.
Curator: Etienne Bernard
Romane de Watteville, Studiolove
February 4– May 13, 2023
Opening: February 3
40mcube
Romane de Watteville displays her paintings at 40mcube centre for contemporary art for her first solo show in a French institution, combining multiple formats and interventions on the exhibition space. Her new works, created for this occasion, are devised with the intention of creating a conversation, complementarity, and a variety of points of view, allowing her to repeat the process achieved in her paintings on an architectural scale. The exhibition’s title, Studiolove, refers to a cabinet of curiosities, namely the Studiolo and Grotta of Isabella d’Este, a Renaissance collector. The exhibition is conceived of as a hybrid environment between the studio, the private and even intimate room, and the exhibition space.
Curator: Anne Langlois
