The Cynics Republic (Paris 2024)
/11
Palais de Tokyo, Paris
13 November–1 December 2024
Opening: 13 November 2024, 6 pm
On the occasion of the 20th anniversary, Kontakt entered into a collaboration with the Palais de Tokyo in Paris and the French national collection of Le Centre national des arts plastiques (CNAP) that paid special attention to those utopian moments and ideas that are inscribed into dematerialized art—encompassing performances, happenings, experimental poetry, and sound-based works from the 1960s and 1970s that makes up a large share of the Kontakt holdings.
Staged by Pierre Bal-Blac, the exhibition predated the emergence of “performative practices” to antiquity, tracing them back in particular to the moment when the ancient philosophical school of cynicism first appeared. Thus, “The Cynics Republic” was situated in the context of performative practices from antiquity to the present that revaluate forms of ancient cynicism—truth, self-sufficiency, endurance, sobriety, and free sexuality. It proposed an approach to performance that transcends the disciplines of moving images, text, music and performance as well as philosophy and critism.
Moreover, it raised questions about future scenarios from perspectives both artistic and institutional, the latter of which relate to the climate crisis and resource scarcity, whose effects also impact current practices in terms of conceiving and realizing exhibitions. Instead of a representative exhibition of physical, on site-artworks, the exhibition “The Cynics Republic” was devoted to the process that requires neither C02-intensive art shipments nor exhibition display.
In close collaboration with artists and theoreticians, the exhibition was renewed every day and every week as it brought the dematerialized works from the Kontakt Collection into dialogue with the works from the French national collection of Le Centre national des arts plastiques (CNAP).
With works by: Boris Achour, Milan Adamčiak, Pierre Bal-Blanc, Beatrice Balcou, Eva Barto, Sammy Baloji, Marie Cool Fabio Balducci, Bazile-Bustamante, Cezary Bodzianowski, Geta Brătescu, Stuart Brisley, Victor Burgin, Nina Canal, Attila Csernik, Josef Dabernig, Anna Daučíková, Brice Dellsperger, Goran Djordjević, Stano Filko (Daniel Grúň), Robert Filliou, Constantin Flondor, Petar Fradelić, Ivan Ladislav Galeta, Marcus Geiger, Delia Gonzalez – Wolfgang Gonzalez, Tomislav Gotovac, Ion Grigorescu, Friedl vom Gröller, Igor Grubić, Gržinić/Šmid, Nilbar Güreş, Trajal Harell, Tibor Hajas, Markus Heltschl, IKHÉA©SERVICES, Dean Inkster, Sanja Iveković, Anna Jermolaewa, Florence Jung, Lenio Kaklea, Július Koller, Katalin Ladik, Nadia Lichtig, Rick Lowe / Maria Papadimitriou, Paul Maheke, Svetlana Maraš, Teresa Margolles, Marianne Marić, Vlado Martek, Jean-Charles Massera, Dominique Mathieu, Mara Mattuschka, Dalibor Martinis, Dóra Maurer, Miodrag Miloševič, Efthimos Moschopoulos, OHO (Luka Savić – David Nez), Rosalind Nashashibi, Paul Neagu, Manuel Pelmuş, Friederike Pezold, Norbert Pfaffenbichler, Rainer Oldendorf, Roman Ondak, Adrian Paci, Mihovil Pansini, Pope.L, Karol Radziszewski, Jimmy Robert, Matthieu Saladin, Georgia Sagri, Shikeith, Cally Spooner, Mladen Stilinović, Sergei Tcherepnin with Pamelia Stickney, Elisabeth Flunger, Philipp Quehenberger, Artjom Astrov and Michaela Kisling, Hans (Ashley) Scheirl, Hans Scheugl, Albert Serra, Mark Ther, La Tierce – Sonia Garcia, Séverine Lefèvre, Charles Pietri, Raša Todosijević, Slaven Tolj, Loreto Martínez Troncoso, Štěpán Tuček, les gens d’Uterpan, Jiří Valoch, Vătămanu/Tudor, VIER5, Marie Voignier, Jeff Wall Production, Clemens von Wedemeyer, Lois Weinberger, Franz West, Mariana Xenofontos, Želimir Žilnik, Artur Żmijewski.
"Kontakt Video Klub"
The "Kontakt Video Klub" has been inspired by the Croatian organization "Kinoklub". It was founded in Zagreb in 1928 as one of the earliest amateur film clubs in the region. The 1950s saw it become an important venue for screenings and discussions—one that was frequented by renowned Croatian filmmakers like Mihovil Pansini as well as by the performance artist Tomislav Gotovac. As part of the exhibition “The Cynics Republic” at the Palais de Tokyo in Paris and on the occasion of Kontakt’s 20th anniversary, the Kontakt website was featuring its own “Video Klub” with a number of videos and films selected by Pierre Bal-Blanc that were alternate on a weekly basis during the exhibition’s three-week run.
https://www.kontakt-collection.org/videoklub
https://palaisdetokyo.com/en/exposition/the-cynics-republic
13 November–1 December 2024
Opening: 13 November 2024, 6 pm
On the occasion of the 20th anniversary, Kontakt entered into a collaboration with the Palais de Tokyo in Paris and the French national collection of Le Centre national des arts plastiques (CNAP) that paid special attention to those utopian moments and ideas that are inscribed into dematerialized art—encompassing performances, happenings, experimental poetry, and sound-based works from the 1960s and 1970s that makes up a large share of the Kontakt holdings.
Staged by Pierre Bal-Blac, the exhibition predated the emergence of “performative practices” to antiquity, tracing them back in particular to the moment when the ancient philosophical school of cynicism first appeared. Thus, “The Cynics Republic” was situated in the context of performative practices from antiquity to the present that revaluate forms of ancient cynicism—truth, self-sufficiency, endurance, sobriety, and free sexuality. It proposed an approach to performance that transcends the disciplines of moving images, text, music and performance as well as philosophy and critism.
Moreover, it raised questions about future scenarios from perspectives both artistic and institutional, the latter of which relate to the climate crisis and resource scarcity, whose effects also impact current practices in terms of conceiving and realizing exhibitions. Instead of a representative exhibition of physical, on site-artworks, the exhibition “The Cynics Republic” was devoted to the process that requires neither C02-intensive art shipments nor exhibition display.
In close collaboration with artists and theoreticians, the exhibition was renewed every day and every week as it brought the dematerialized works from the Kontakt Collection into dialogue with the works from the French national collection of Le Centre national des arts plastiques (CNAP).
With works by: Boris Achour, Milan Adamčiak, Pierre Bal-Blanc, Beatrice Balcou, Eva Barto, Sammy Baloji, Marie Cool Fabio Balducci, Bazile-Bustamante, Cezary Bodzianowski, Geta Brătescu, Stuart Brisley, Victor Burgin, Nina Canal, Attila Csernik, Josef Dabernig, Anna Daučíková, Brice Dellsperger, Goran Djordjević, Stano Filko (Daniel Grúň), Robert Filliou, Constantin Flondor, Petar Fradelić, Ivan Ladislav Galeta, Marcus Geiger, Delia Gonzalez – Wolfgang Gonzalez, Tomislav Gotovac, Ion Grigorescu, Friedl vom Gröller, Igor Grubić, Gržinić/Šmid, Nilbar Güreş, Trajal Harell, Tibor Hajas, Markus Heltschl, IKHÉA©SERVICES, Dean Inkster, Sanja Iveković, Anna Jermolaewa, Florence Jung, Lenio Kaklea, Július Koller, Katalin Ladik, Nadia Lichtig, Rick Lowe / Maria Papadimitriou, Paul Maheke, Svetlana Maraš, Teresa Margolles, Marianne Marić, Vlado Martek, Jean-Charles Massera, Dominique Mathieu, Mara Mattuschka, Dalibor Martinis, Dóra Maurer, Miodrag Miloševič, Efthimos Moschopoulos, OHO (Luka Savić – David Nez), Rosalind Nashashibi, Paul Neagu, Manuel Pelmuş, Friederike Pezold, Norbert Pfaffenbichler, Rainer Oldendorf, Roman Ondak, Adrian Paci, Mihovil Pansini, Pope.L, Karol Radziszewski, Jimmy Robert, Matthieu Saladin, Georgia Sagri, Shikeith, Cally Spooner, Mladen Stilinović, Sergei Tcherepnin with Pamelia Stickney, Elisabeth Flunger, Philipp Quehenberger, Artjom Astrov and Michaela Kisling, Hans (Ashley) Scheirl, Hans Scheugl, Albert Serra, Mark Ther, La Tierce – Sonia Garcia, Séverine Lefèvre, Charles Pietri, Raša Todosijević, Slaven Tolj, Loreto Martínez Troncoso, Štěpán Tuček, les gens d’Uterpan, Jiří Valoch, Vătămanu/Tudor, VIER5, Marie Voignier, Jeff Wall Production, Clemens von Wedemeyer, Lois Weinberger, Franz West, Mariana Xenofontos, Želimir Žilnik, Artur Żmijewski.
"Kontakt Video Klub"
The "Kontakt Video Klub" has been inspired by the Croatian organization "Kinoklub". It was founded in Zagreb in 1928 as one of the earliest amateur film clubs in the region. The 1950s saw it become an important venue for screenings and discussions—one that was frequented by renowned Croatian filmmakers like Mihovil Pansini as well as by the performance artist Tomislav Gotovac. As part of the exhibition “The Cynics Republic” at the Palais de Tokyo in Paris and on the occasion of Kontakt’s 20th anniversary, the Kontakt website was featuring its own “Video Klub” with a number of videos and films selected by Pierre Bal-Blanc that were alternate on a weekly basis during the exhibition’s three-week run.
https://www.kontakt-collection.org/videoklub
https://palaisdetokyo.com/en/exposition/the-cynics-republic
see also