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EXHIBITION
"TRANSLATION"
Vanessa Beecroft, Michael Bevilacqua, Ashley Bickerton, Cai Guo-Qiang, Maurizio Cattelan, Verne Dawson, Matt Greene, Mike Kelley, Jeff Koons, Joseph Kosuth, Liza Lou, Takashi Murakami, Ningura Napurrula, Shirin Neshat, Cady Noland, Chris Ofili, Gabriel Orozco, Yinka Shonibare, Shahzia Sikander, Kara Walker, Nari Ward, Christopher Wool
With the collaboration of M/M (Paris)

>> 23 June - 18 September 2005

Wednesday 22 June
10:00-12:00: private press and vip opening
20:00-midnight: public opening

>>> Download the Press Kit (712 ko)

TRANSLATION
The Palais de Tokyo has invited M/M (Paris) to put on display some of the major artworks from one of the most prestigious collections of contemporary art in Europe, The Dakis Joannou Collection. For two months a veritable visual opera will occupy the whole Palais de Tokyo, bringing together under one roof major artworks by some of the leading artists of the last two decades, including Jeff Koons, Maurizio Cattelan, Vanessa Beecroft, Takashi Murakami, Mike Kelley, Shirin Neshat, Nari Ward, Liza Lou and many more. Plunged by M/M (Paris) into an unexpected multiform graphic context, essential works of art will go through multiple translations...


Liza Lou, Super Sister, 1999 ; Jeff Koons, Moon,
1994-2000. The Dakis Joannou Collection, Athens.

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A unique exhibition experience
"A new form of modernity has always appeared," wrote Michel Foucault, "each time our relationship to the present found itself drastically changed by history." What would be the current form of "modern" in art today in the age of globalization, that gigantic movement that is calling into question all that we know?
TRANSLATION will try to sketch out an answer to that question in the form of a veritable visual opera in which works from The Dakis Joannou Collection set out in the Palais de Tokyo by the French graphic designers M/M (Paris) - Michael Amzalag and Mathias Augustyniak - who are well known for both their work with Björk or at Vogue and their close connections with numerous artists of their generation.
TRANSLATION sets out to take stock of today's art via these two graphic designers' own view of major artworks from the recent past: Are we about to see a new modernism appear, one founded on a resistance to the standardization of culture? After 20th-century modernism, which aspired to the international language of abstraction, the aim for the artists of today is to translate into a contemporary language the particularities of their specific cultural identity, their social singularity, their difference. It is a "translation" in both sense of the word, i.e., the usual meaning of the term and its original Latin sense of something "carried over" or "transferred."
This mutant form of a hybrid culture, this art of resisting the standardization of cultures and of the world economy, might best be called altermodernism. TRANSLATION is both an attempt to approach that new spirit and, as the result of the displays worked out by M/M (Paris), a unique exhibition experience.


Vanessa Beecroft, VB 48, Palazzo Ducale, Gênes, 2001. The Dakis Joannou Collection, Athens.

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M/M (Paris)
Michael Amzalag and Mathias Augustyniak sign all their work M/M (Paris). The duo has been involved with the unolding story of the Palais de Tokyo ever since its inception, when they created the "Tokyo Palace" typeface. The exhibition "Translation" represent the latest phase of their ongoing "conversation" with the Palais de Tokyo. They operate in a very diverse set of worlds, from their ongoing collaboration with Björk to art direction for Jil Sander, Calvin Klein, Yohji Yamamoto, Martine Sitbon, Balenciaga, and Vogue Paris, to recurring projects with Pierre Huyghe, Philippe Parreno, Liam Gillick and many other artists, as well as book and exhibition catalogs, from "Traffic" at the capc in Bordeaux to the catalog of the permanent collection of the National Museum of Modern Art of the Pompidou Center, but also costume and setdesign for a baroque opera and videos clips. M/M (Paris) move fluently between the worlds of fashion, art, music, cinema, theater, and creative photography.


M/M (Paris) , Balenciaga Advertising s/s, 2001 ; Björk : Hidden place, Single Cover, 2001 ;
Calvin Klein Jeans Advertising s/s, 2002

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The Dakis Joannou Collection
The Dakis Joannou Collection is one of the largest collections of contemporary art in Europe. The collection, which offers a selected panorama of contemporary art from 1985 to the present, features some of the most representative and decisive artists of the late 20th-century.
Collecting is, for me, an adventure, a set of different "lived" experiences, a constant flow of meeting, talking, listening, looking. It is an act of understanding and participating. And within this never ending involvement with "what is happening," the moments when I see exciting works for the first time constitute some of the highlights of my life, for they have caused me to look at issues that I had never considered before. (Dakis Joannou)

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The Deste Foundation for Contemporay Art
Established in 1983 by Dakis Joannou and based in Athens, Deste is a non-profit foundation that explores the relationship between contemporary art and culture. Through an ambitious exhibition program, numerous publications, an artists archive and the Deste Prize awarded every two years to a Greek artist,The Deste Foundation promotes emerging as well as established artists and provides to its public, Greek and international, the opportunity to experience the art of major artists from all around the world.
"Monument to Now", the last major show organised by the Foundation during the 2004 Olympic Games, featured 95 leading international artists, all from The Dakis Joannou Collection.


Takashi Murakami, Inochi, 2004.
The Dakis Joannou Collection, Athens.

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Curators of the exhibition "TRANSLATION:
Nicolas Bourriaud, Jérôme Sans, Marc Sanchez

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For further information
> The exhibition TRANSLATION page
> The M/M (Paris) page
> The Deste Foundation for Contemporary Art website
> The M/M (Paris) website

Any questions?
> translation@palaisdetokyo.com

> The exhibition "Translation" is produced with the collaboration of The Deste Foundation for Contemporay Art, Athens.

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The Media Partners of the Exhibition


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The Palais de Tokyo's Permanent Partners




With the support of Porter Novelli,
Public-Relations Consultants

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Communications Manager
Sofianne Le Bourhis
assisted by Mylène Ferrand
Tel: +33 1 47 23 54 57
sofianne@palaisdetokyo.com

Press Contact
Chloé Guillemard
Perrine Martin
Tel: +33 1 47 23 52 00
presse@palaisdetokyo.com

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