'Noches eléctricas' will display at LABoral the result of the collaboration with the Pompidou
The exhibition will be on show from Friday 18th March until 12th September at the Centro de Arte y Creación Industrial in Gijón
Claude Closky's work 'L'Hay-les-Roses', 2000-2001
From next Friday 18th March until 12th September, LABoral Centro de Arte y Creación Industrial will welcome Noches eléctricas [Electrical Nights]. Art and pyrotechnic - an exhibition conceived by the Musée National d’Art Moderne-Centre Georges Pompidou in Paris and co-produced by LABoral in Gijón.
Noches eléctricas [Electric Nights] takes its name from Les nuits électriques, a short film directed by Eugène Deslaw in 1928, in which he focused on city lights at night-time, sequencing street lamps, neon signs and shop windows of Paris, Berlin and Prague almost as if it were a fireworks show. Similarly to fireworks, film is an intermittent ephemeral projection of light in the darkness.
Through a selection of works from the collection of the Centre Georges Pompidou, this exhibition, borrowing the visual recourses of pyrotechnics, wishes to demonstrate the continuity between spectacles of fire and the art of the moving image: flowers, stars, rain, fire, storms, fountains, volcanoes...
The exhibition, which is sponsored by CajAstur, begins with a series of classical French etchings and old photographs - produced by authors such as Brassaï, André Kertész, László Moholy-Nagy and Dora Maar - and experimental films from the 20s. All of this introduces and gives way to a series of contemporary works by artists including: Anthony McCall, who will present an installation exclusively produced for Sala 1B which will be on exhibit until the end of the year; Apitchatpong Weerathsekul, whose latest feature film won the Palme d´Or at the Cannes Festival last May; Yoko Ono, a leading figure in conceptual art and Fluxus; and Ana Mendieta, renowned Cuban artist, feminist and important point of reference for art in the 60s and 70s. The historical perspective that this show provides in turn allows for reflection on artistic themes and concerns which have been explored for over a century and, also, gives an insight into changes that technology (in this case, electricity) has brought about in the urban environment.
Noches eléctricas is curated by Philippe-Alain Michaud, Art historian and Film Curator at the Musée National d’Art Moderne-Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris, working in collaboration with Laurent Le Bon, Curator and Director of the new Centre Pompidou Metz, Paris, and with Benjamin Weil, Chief Curator at LABoral Centro de Arte y Creación Industrial.
The selected works will be presented in the following thematic groups: Light sculptures; Illumination; Fountains, storms, fires; the Sparkling; Uprisings; War and Entertainment; Eruptions: Anonymous fragments; Explosions; the Picturesque and the Sublime; Beginnings, accelerated growth; Electrical nights; and Constellations.
Presented in open plan and conceived both, as a parcours and as entertainment, rather than like a classical exhibition, the show follows the principle of fireworks, alternating installations with projections. The moving images are presented on screens in different sizes and formats hanging at varying heights in the space. The principle of horizontal vision is thus altered and we experience the exhibition as if we were at a fireworks show: looking at the sky.
NOCHES ELÉCTRICAS [Electic Nights]
Art and Pirotechnics
18.03.2011-12.09.2011
Exhibition conceived by: Le Centre National d'Art et de Culture Georges Pompidou
Production: Le Centre National d’Art et de Culture Georges Pompidou y LABoral Centro de Arte y Creación Industrial
Curators: Philippe-Alain Michaud, Laurent Le Bon, Benjamin Weil
Artists: Constantin Brancusi, Brassaï, John Cale, Claude Closky, Eugène Deslaw, Audouin Dollfus, Helga Fanderl, Fischli & Weiss, Cai Guo-Qiang, Brion Gysin, André Kertész, Jean Le Pautre, Ange Leccia, Claude Lévêque, Rose Lowder, Dora Maar, Anthony McCall, Ana Mendieta, Lászlo Moholy-Nagy, Yoko Ono, Anri Sala, Roman Signer, Israël Silvestre, José Antonio Sistiaga, Rui Toscano, Apichatpong Weerasethakul, Cerith Wyn Evans
Collaborating Patron: Cajastur
Technological Partner: ProjectionDesign
Exhibition Rooms: Salas 1A, 1B, Almacén Sur
Socio tecnológico: Projection Design
Supported by:: Institut Français
Exhibition Design: Raquel Gallego
Graphic Design: The Studio of Fernando Gutiérrez
Handbook: 5 €
Catalogue: 30 €
