In Evian, the famous French city known around the world for its natural springs of pure water, the Fondazione Sandretto Re Rebaudengo presents H2O from June 12 to September 19, 2010. In the setting of Palais Lumiére’s thermal baths designed by the Parisian architect Ernest Brunnarius at the front of the 20th Century at the perimeters of Lake Geneva, H2O displays art pieces from the Sandretto Re Rebaudengo collection bringing you through a staggering tour of contemporary works focused on the theme of water.
The selection of works of 22 international artists is a part of the Patrizia Sandretto Re Rebaudengo’s Collection. The exhibition is presented by Francesco Bonami, the artistic director of the Fondazione Sandertto Re Rebaudengo and curated by Irene Calderoni.
The artists, through different means of exposition (sculpture, installation, video, photography and painting) deal with the concept of water. Through the dimensions and elements of water, they express diverse ideas of landscape, from the human and animal form, throughout the concept of the artificial and the natural. Their approach varies in recreational or catastrophic results, giving clues of reflection on ethical and social issues.
Artists involved in the exhibition are Andrea Abati, Doug Aitken, Andreoni Fortugno, Stefano Arienti, Lina Bertucci, Daniele De Lonti, Flavio Favelli, Douglas Gordon, Jeppe Hein, Noritoshi Hirakawa, Damien Hirst, Carsten Höller, Karen Kilimnik, Sharon Lockhart, Eva Marisaldi, Carmelo Nicosia, Enzo Obiso, Hermann Pitz, Toshio Shibata, Fiona Tan, Charles Ray and Nobuko Tsuchiya.
Carsten Höller interprets “Balena Bianca”, a small White Wale with a humanized playful appereance while his Vehicle (Anphibian) is a sculpture composed by two large tires where inside the empty space he hangs his shirts as sails so that the Vehicle can be moved through the water while being propelled by the wind. Playing with the idea of the transparent body of a jellyfish as a means of transportation, Nobuko Tsuchiya takes us into an imaginary journey discovering the oceans. Flavio Favelli brings to focus the sea showing seashells and various endangered corals as the first polemic instance of man’s destruction of the natural environment. This attempt of attack becomes clear in the video “News from the Near Future” by Fiona Tan where unsettling, poetic images create a sense of suspense and tragedy evoking the immanent end of human kind caused by hurricanes and floods provoked by human negligence of the environment. The melting of the polar ice caps is the subject of Doug Atkin’s video “Thaw” giving us the allure and terror of a planet in continuing transformation. Whereas Charles Ray in his work “Viral Research” stages the flow of viral forms across a glass table on which bottles and jugs are hung with black liquid that streams through tubes, osmostically flowing from one container to another. There are also romantic aspects investigated in the surrealistic night-shots of the Italian Riviera done by artist Andrea Abati, or the impalpable connection between the human body and the body fluids in the photos by Noritoshi Hirakawa, poised between performance and body art. H2O as well as the installation by Douglas Gordon leaves us suspended as tightrope walkers on a steel cable stretched between the edges of the Niagara Falls in balance between power and the unpredictable, embodying a perfect metaphor as to what contemporary art is to the concept of water.
INFO:
Palais Lumière, Evian, France. Quai Albert Besson-74500 Evian. www.ville-evian.fr
Hours: Tuesday - Sunday 10:30 A.M. – 7:00 P.M.; Monday 2:00 P.M. – 7:00 P.M.
Tickets: €10 Full Price , €7 Reduced Price
