I should explain why I’m writing and sending you all this. Otherwise I could be accused of criticising, which I’m not. I already told you: I’m frightened.
I’m afraid French art is dead. I mean art- in France -is dead. Movements emerge so why wouldn’t art die, in certain places and period of time.
I’m not saying that lightly. I’ve been back in Paris for about eight years now, and I’ve not hurried to conclusions. But now I do state it: art is dead here.
And I nearly went myself.
I escaped the zombies just in time. But here I am in a horror movie. Rather frightened.
I had prepared another newsletter n°2 with more quotes from the Koran, the Bible and Elle. I intended to take you slowly to my hypotheses with various non-art examples but a friend of mine called. He had invited an English artist to present a performance in his
studio and was discovering that the Mac Val Museum of Contemporary Art was having its 5th anniversary.I told him I had seen the info but when why I read « win a year pass » I quickly moved to something else. They already talk like that for telephones, washing machines, travel and day cream, I’m not too keen on hearing it again in art. So I went to check on their website what was really going on and see how strong the competition was…
I read. I translate. The French version has got many grammatical mistakes which I somehow have to integrate. Sorry. If you feel you can make some corrections. Please do no hesitate to forward them to me.
«Of course "Let's Dance" refers to the well know David Bowie album (1983), with melancholic overtones.
First sentence and I’m puzzled already. I go and listen quickly to the music but I can’t quite perceive any melancholia in it. Could it be that the author meant that a listener over 27 years old could feel melancholic when listening to it…hum… grammar. English is not my first language but French is and there is a difference in a music being melancholic and a listener being melancholic. Never mind, it’s not that important. Now it’s the title Let’s Dance referring to Let’s Dance, which is bothering me. A reference? Isn’t it just the same or is there something I don’t get here? Does it have something to do with the «of course» at the beginning of the sentence? Is it because nobody would be that stupid to think about the eponym 50’s musical with Fred Astaire? I don’t know. I don’t feel too well.
An invitation? An injunction?
Eeeeeuhhhh? Like we say in French. Why do you ask? What exactly is the question? Yes, I guess let’s dance is a form of invitation...rather than an injunction, which I suppose would be a bit violent. Unless we're already in some mad Carrie remake.
As strange as it may seem, this title sounds like an echo to the slogan Act Up used to chant: « I will dance anyway”; for this deals with a form of resistance!
The spelling mistake in the French version is quite a sad confusion between two verbs: raisonner (to think) and résonner (to echo) usely used in rather bad jokes. Ah well it can happen… But I must also admit that I don’t really see the link here - apart form the word dance. Maybe there’s something I don’t know about between Act Up and Bowie… I don’t get the link with resistance either, but it’s a good word.
This group exhibition gives us a vision of backstage. Melancholic, that’s how you could, in a way qualify the subject of the exhibition.
Believe me. It’s a nightmare to translate. Please don’t think it’s my fault only. I do make mistakes, but I swear, in this case, you can’t tell if it gives a picture of behind the set, or if you’re backstage glancing at the theatre from behind the curtain or if it’s a set at all or a stage... Me lost. Me crazy woman. Me intelligent. Mad. Resistance therefore melancholia? What set? What is a melancholic subject, or point? If it’s like Bowie’s album, it’s only going to make very very depressed people cry; or people with strong memories. I don’t know. Deliverance.
B
The uncontrollable need to commemorate together important moments of life is one of the red thread linking together 50 of the world of international artists brought together for "Let's Dance" from the 2nd of October to the 16th of January 2011.
Breathe in, breathe our. It’s very difficult to read in French. I’m telling you. It’s an attack. What is this irresistible need? Is it just badly put together? Am I stupid? Nasty? Dishonest? Am I a bad person? Who is feeling this need? What’s going on? Are you talking to me? Who are you talking to? Chainsaw Massacre. "Let's Dance,” suggests a visit of common elements*within celebration through its various motives: birthdays, fire works, candles, cakes, neighbourhood parties, rites of passage, and music…
*Originally « lieux communs » means small talks or platitudes. it’s probably not what is meant here.
That’s where I can’t read anymore. I can’t give them the benefit of the doubt anymore. It’s too much. I can’t be correction in my head all the time. I can’t go mad because it’s the Mac Val press release and they already have 900 people on their event facebook page. Visiting elements like candles? I’m feeling weak, and slightly dizzy. I’m alone. How can I seriously go there and say hello to the curator? Hi, that’s very interesting. Rituals. Rites of passage. What does motives mean here? Justification or ornament?
… which are as many meeting points for communities, which don’t prevent loneliness.
I swear. I have a weird sensation. It can’t be someone who doesn’t speak French. You would notice the mistakes (as you probably do with me) but you would also get the meaning of the text. Here, it’s like reading a kid’s homework. which.. which...
This is the 5th anniversary show of a serious art centre in the Paris suburb. An Museum with a 3,5 millions € annual operating budget. It’s a big place. I’m not cynical. This is not a joke. I love art. It’s the real. The return of the real. The return of the living dead.
The exhibition was thus conceived as a large vanitas.
Surprise. A simple idea despite the weirdness of the construction. Why thus? What it the relation with anniversaries, cakes, neighoourhood parties, Bowies and the set. Oh, but hey there’s a skull. Here we are. Thus a vanitas.
As one goes along through the exhibition, story snatches interweave.
Sorry again. The grammar is turning inside out. I’m French. I know I can speak. I know the meaning of words. Suspiria. Suspiria.
Events - perceived as is, around an installation or a sculptor, a video or a painting - are as many brief, and incomplete moments
I love thinking and I know it’s not always straightforward. I also know about poetry and schizophrenia. I’m trying hard to act normal here. Does it sound strange to you? Is this me? Can you help? Maybe it’s a neuronal infection? Something in my brain that prevents me from linking words and following what is supposed to be quite fixed and regulated, sentences. Maybe A virus? A tumour? Opera. Opera.
But theses scenes are universal enough to allow each and all of use to identity with them.
Universal, it’s for a certain type of glue isn’t it? Didn’t we like sort of agree that universal was controversial? I’m starting to have serious doubts here. Is this the real text? I did Apple C, apple V. It looks like someone pirated them, or sent them a spy or a terrorist. Maybe there’s a right wing nerd out there, taking the piss and I fell in the trap. I hate plot theories. I have no theories. I’m lost. Disorientated.
Nevertheless, unlike clichés describing perfectly stereotyped situations, "Let's Dance" plays around with objects’ ambiguity.
This is getting tedious. There is also a grammatical mistake here. « Se jouer » doesn’t really mean « play around with » but more « make fun of »… anyway…Why does the author explain what a cliché is but not a stereotype? Do you understand why I’m afraid? You cannot not understand? Please tell me you feel the danger here. It plays with my intelligence. Or maybe I’m completely wrong. They do it on purpose. By why so many grammatical mistakes, then? Why? Nearly one in each sentence. We are talking of a museum here. A big museum of contemporary art. Is it trendy? Pop?
For the exhibition "Let's Dance", nothing ironical nor morbid, no effusion, no empathy.
I don’t know what to say. Language from hell. I’m being swallowed by nonsensical sentences. You can’t even understand since you don’t speak French. Please someone out here. have it translated by a professional. I’m trapped in a sick mind’s delirium. Caught in bad joke. Am I the only one who can’t read this? Has my brain lost practical concepts, like humour. Yes, maybe it’s humour. It’s me going crazy or it’s Mac Val. It’s one of us.
No appropriation of the past, no anticipation of the future. When timelessness sets in, even nostalgia ceases to exist.
The final zombies’ attack. I told you. It’s a horror film I’m in. Even nostalgia ceases to exist.
Do you want a free annual pass?