Hymne à la joie, photo de Claude Levêque, 12 mars 2011 An exhibition of work by Claude Lévêque, at the invitation of agnès b. From 21 June 20 August 2011 / Opening reception, Monday 20 June 2011 Media contacts: La Galerie des Galeries Galeries Lafayette First floor 40 boulevard Haussmann, 75009 Paris - Monday through Saturday from 11 am to 7 pm Free admission Galerie des Galeries Elsa Janssen / Laurène Blottière T : +33 (0)1 42 82 30 90 / 35 76 ejanssen@galerieslafayette.com lblottiere@galerieslafayette.com - T : 01 42 82 81 98 galeriedesgaleries@galerieslafayette.com Fouchard Filippi Communications Philippe Fouchard Filippi M : +33 (0)6 60 21 11 94 T : +33 (0)1 53 28 87 53 phff@fouchardfilippi.com www.fouchardfilippi.com Visuals can be downloaded at: www.galeriedesgaleries.com
Press release Keen to invite the fashion designer agnès b., the Galerie des Galeries has given wonderfully gifted individual carte blanche to put together an exhibition for this summer. Allowed a free rein, agnès b. decided to work with the internationally renowned French artist Claude Lévêque. From 21 June to 20 August 2011 Lévêque will be presenting «Hymne à la joie» (Hymn to Joy), a new installation to be created on site for the Galerie des Galeries exhibition space. Lévêque takes into consideration the sensual atmosphere of the sites he is preparing to transform. In this case, the artist plans to use sound and light in particular, elements that he sees as primordial for conveying sensations, to alter the space of the Galerie des Galeries. Deliberately limiting himself in terms of the artistic means he intends to mobilize, Lévêque will create the conditions for a new common space. The title «Hymne à la joie» obviously alludes to Ludwig van Beethoven, the Ode to Joy and his Ninth Symphony, but to know more, art lovers will have to stop by and discover the show for themselves. The important thing in a Lévêque installation is to live with it and allow it to live in you. The installation will submerge visitors in a powerful atmosphere, and will spark their participation, free, physical, real participation. They will feel moved to stroll through the space and slip out of reality. They will enter a new world where emotions, collective memory (and memories) and experiences are engaged. The show will be prolonged visually in a lasting way, moreover, thanks to a limited edition of the photographic image «Hymne à la joie» (12 March 2011), each print numbered and signed by Claude Lévêque. Brought out by Éditions Bernard Chauveau, the photographic prints will be on sale at the Galerie des Galeries bookshop and on the publisher s website. Born in 1953, Claude Lévêque is a major artist on the art scene both in France and internationally. His works refer to popular culture, the environment of daily life and mental images. Lévêque creates atmospheres, environments or objects while expanding the dimensions of his installations through the use of the sensory effect of light and sound. Playing on the work of art s ability to spark visual and sensuous emotions, he shakes up perceptual habits, thus reactivating cultural references that are a necessary part of his artmaking. A fashion icon and founder of the Galerie du Jour (1984), agnès b. is also an important figure in contemporary art. Gallery owner, collector and art patron, this fashion designer has never flagged in her commitment to developing art projects and supporting numerous artists, from Martin Parr to Jonas Mekas. She responded immediately to the Galerie des Galeries s carte blanche, turning to Lévêque, an artist she has long been close to and whose work she has actively followed for many years. Created in 2001, the Galerie des Galeries aims to offer an original space for displaying contemporary art in the heart of the department store as a way of illustrating the exchanges and dialogue that exist between the visual arts, fashion and design. For three years running the Galerie des Galeries has offered carte blanche each summer to a designer or other personality from the world of fashion displaying a strong link with contemporary art. Thus, in, the fashion historian Olivier Saillard, the current director of the Galliera Museum, mounted the show «Au-delà du vêtement» (Beyond Clothing) to conjure up his view of Paris through a presentation that mixed art, fashion and poetry. And in 2010 it was the designer Vanessa Bruno s turn to take over the Galerie des Galeries space, where she combined new pieces of sculpture by the artist Daniel Firman with truly poetic photo installations.
La carte blanche, agnès b. «Claude Lévêque, my dear Claude is an artist whose work I have the honor of knowing and knowing well for over twenty years! I even represented him at the agnès b. Galerie du Jour for several years. I ve been with him to rock concerts, a music that he particularly loves and uses in his work as well. I find his work magnificent, like him; he creates a particular atmosphere in the venues he takes over by arranging, for example, objects or day-to-day masses, i.e., cinder blocks, mattresses, deckchairs, a Citroën van. They become a language associated with sound and light; then there are the neon lights. For me, it is Claude who has best employed this technique in phrases and words that show an obvious poetry and great visual power as well.» agnès b., on Claude Lévêque s work. Text written for the «Hymne à la joie» show at the Galerie des Galeries. Work presented in the agnès b. boutique of Galeries Lafayette Haussmann in conjunction with the exhibition: Le réveil de la jeunesse empoisonnée (The Awakening of Poisoned Youth) White neon light Writing by Jules Viguier 205 x 40 cm
agnès b. The fashion designer agnès b. began her career as a fashion editor at Elle magazine, before being hired on by the labels Dorothée bis, VdeV and Pierre d Alby. She opened her first boutique on Rue du Jour in 1975 in a former butcher s shop. Her simple clothing designs stood out for their clear, elegant and sober cut. Her success made it possible for her to open shops the world over. But agnès b. didn t stop there! She has also readily embraced her passion for art. Because she was a collector and loved art, she opened the Galerie du Jour, Rue Quincampoix in Paris in 1984. In this venue she has exhibited photographers like Martin Parr or images by the experimental filmmaker Jonas Mekas. A lover of cinema as well, agnès b. owns a film production company, Love Streams Productions. Claude Lévêque Born in 1953 in Nevers (Nièvre) Lives and works in Montreuil (Seine-Saint-Denis) and Pèteloup (Nièvre) www.claudeleveque.com Solo shows (selection) 2010 Set design for «Siddharta», Ballet by Angelin Preljocaj, Opéra Bastille, Paris. «IDEAL CIRCUS», Verrière Hermès, Brussels. «Le Grand Soir», French Pavilion, 53rd Biennial of contemporary art, Venice. 2008 «Welcome to Suicide Park», galerie. 2007 «Tous les soleils», Haut Fourneau U4, Uckange. 2006 «Le Grand Sommeil», MAC/VAL, Vitry-sur-Seine. 2003 «Albatros», MAMCO, Geneva. 2002 «Reconstruire la fenêtre», Rice Gallery, Tokyo. «Double manège», Contemporary Art Center, Art Tower Mito, Mito, Japan. 1999 «Stigmata», PS1 Museum, New York. 1998 - «games s over», Galerie du Jour, agnès b, Paris. 1996 «My Way», ARC/Musée d Art moderne de la Ville de Paris. Group shows (selection) 2010 «Hymne», Busan Museum of Art, 2010 Biennial, Busan, South Korea. «Dans le silence ou dans le bruit», Echigo-Tsumari Art Triennial, Kiriyama House Japan, Japan. 2006 «Valstar Barbie», Le Mouvement des Images, Musée National d Art Moderne/Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris. 2003 «Tambour», Echigo-Tsumari Art Triennial, Tokamachi, Japan. 1998 «Sans titre», Premises,Storefront for Art and Architecture, Guggenheim Museum, New York. 1984 «La Nuit», Atelier 84, ARC/Musée d Art moderne de la Ville de Paris.
Datapanik 2004 Installation White sheet cut-outs, frame, lamps, fans Collection Musée d art contemporain du Val-de-Marne Le Grand Sommeil 2006 On-site installation MAC/VAL, Vitry-sur-Seine 36 PVC bed frames, white polystyrene balls, Plexiglas half-spheres, black light. Sound played: music for a pachinko gallery. Sound design in collaboration with Gerome Nox. Photo Léo Carbonnier
Le rôdeur 2007 On-site installation, the Carracci Gallery, Farnese Palace, Luce di Pietra exhibition, Rome Stage set structure, sheer curtain, fans, black-light tubes, projectors with pink skin-tone filters, bedside lamps, mattress Photo Claudio Abate
At Night 2007 White neon light Writing by Léo Carbonnier 18 x 202 cm 3 copies Private collections Dans le silence ou dans le bruit (Cercle de feu) On-site installation (detail), Kiriyama House, Echigo-Tsumari Art Triennial, Japan Hanging ring of red lamps reflected on the floor and windows
Dans le silence ou dans le bruit (Soleil levant) On-site installation, Kiriyama House, Echigo-Tsumari Art Triennial, Japan Circular vinyl chloride folding screen with cut-out loop-holes, water vapor, orange neon lights Le Grand Soir On-site installation, French Pavilion, 53rd Biennial of Venice. Black airlock entrance in the peristyle, stainless-steel cages, projected spangles, lamp frames, black silk sheets, fans, white profile spotlight, vellum Sound played: sound of a moving ship in the 3 side galleries of the pavilion. Sound design in collaboration with Frédéric Alstadt Photo Léo Carbonnier
IDEAL CIRCUS 2010 On-site installation, Verrière Hermès, Brussels Scale model of a white circus tent, Plexiglas platter, enlarged carved-wood trestles 500 x 310 x 230 cm Sound played: whistling of Entrance of the Gladiators Sound design in collaboration with Gerome Nox Côme Duwa and Claude Lévêque whistling
The Diamond Sea 2010 On-site installation (detail), Centre Régional d Art Contemporain Languedoc-Roussillon, Sète Enlarged hanging mobile origami of a boat done in resin sheets, black light Sound played: contorted fragment of the adagietto from Gustav Malher s Fifth Symphony. Sound design in collaboration with Gerome Nox 822 x 264 x 265 cm
The Galerie des Galeries is a permanent exhibition venue. Located on the first floor of Lafayette Coupole, the Galerie des Galeries strives to fulfill its mission to encourage visitors to Galeries Lafayette to discover the talented artists of today and tomorrow. The gallery s exhibition program, comprising five shows per year devoted to French and international work in various creative fields, looks to emphasize the cross-pollination that exists between fashion, the fine arts and design, disciplines that have always inspired Galeries Lafayette. Upcoming events: «Interzone» Installation by the artist and architect Didier Faustino in the Lafayette Maison store windows, proposed as part of the Designer s Days «Conversations» circuit of events 1 20 June 2011 >>> Lafayette Maison store windows «Paris&Création» Vitrines sur l art (Windows on Art) Carte blanche given to eight cultural institutions in Paris 11 July 5 August 2010 >>> Lafayette Coupole store windows, bd Haussmann Publication of the exhibition catalog «Hymne à la joie» Bernard Chauveau Éditeur Late July 2011