Opening on Wednesday 18 January 2017, 6-9 pm
With artwork by:
Xavier Antin, Pierre-Olivier Arnaud, Zbyněk Baladran, Erica Baum, Maurice Blaussyld, Daniel Gustav Cramer, David Douard, Francesco Gennari, Ian Kiaer, Melvin Moti, Nashashibi/Skaer, Gyan Panchal, Paul Sietsema
Curator: Xavier Franceschi
Some works seem to be telling us a lot about the world in which we live, about this current period, without explicitly indicating specific events that we could no doubt relate to.
Art is always rooted in reality. Whatever the approach adopted by the artists, in principle it expresses a real-life experience. However, without being explicit or intentional, some works more than others reflect developments in the world, the dangers and numerous disturbances. Their strength lies in this way of being totally relevant, of being completely contemporary.
The Strange Days exhibition draws on some of the latest acquisitions made by Frac Île-de-France and presents a number of these pertinent works.
Scattered throughout Le Plateau, they display a set of distinguishing characteristics of the modern world such as tension, uncertainty, absence, disintegration, violence etc. These resound in us strangely in light of our understanding be it (geo) politics, economics, ecology, etc.
The way each of these works is perceived cannot however be confined to this single point of view. They by no means directly indicate specific topical phenomenon – or if they do, it is not from a so-called socially “engaged” art perspective –, and they are embedded in initiatives with a variety of issues greatly exceeding this purpose alone.
The artworks brought together in the exhibition are displayed with resolute biases such as obscurity and dispersion, the only source of light is provided by the pieces themselves, above all emphasising a formal expression, they create a particularly symbolic landscape of the world as it is, of this world that is constantly announcing strange and worrying consequences.
Vue de l’exposition Strange Days, frac île-de-france, le plateau, Paris, 2017. Photo : Martin Argyroglo 
Vue de l’exposition Strange Days, frac île-de-france, le plateau, Paris, 2017. Photo : Martin Argyroglo 
Vue de l’exposition Strange Days, frac île-de-france, le plateau, Paris, 2017. Melvin Moti, Cosmism, 2015 © Melvin Moti, collection frac île-de-france. Photo : Martin Argyroglo 
Vue de l’exposition Strange Days, frac île-de-france, le plateau, Paris, 2017. Photo : Martin Argyroglo 
Vue de l’exposition Strange Days, frac île-de-france, le plateau, Paris, 2017. Ian Kiaer, Offset / black tulip (black), 2009 © Ian Kiaer, collection frac île-de-france. Photo : Martin Argyroglo