By the Module – Fondation Pierre Bergé – Yves Saint Laurent

Judith Espinas is a sculptor. She creates unique choreographies, using modeled or deformed elements, occasionally hinging on the grotesque. A dripping cup-and-ball, a window inserted in an igloo or a rudder placed at the top of a mountain become humorous, mysterious creatures. “Thus my sculptures are situated at the edge of language,” says the artist, who cites Ovid’s Metamorphosis, Franz West’s sculptures or the Bolis Bambara as sources of inspiration. She endows materials with a new life, “elevating them to the rank of figures in a brutal gesture that designates them as life forms.” The exhibition format also appears as a material in and of itself, which the artist reworks indefinitely.

 

For her exhibition in one of the window displays of the Galeries Lafayette, Judith Espinas offers a critical reconsideration of the concept of a window display itself. What has traditionally been used to exhibit articles for sale, opens into the interior of a grotto, in a hybrid installation whose origin could be found in the Grotte des Demoiselles (Hérault), the architecture of Hans Poelzig, or the houses of Etienne Martin. From this dark, shapeless interior, the colored accents of sculptures, whose identity is difficult to discern, emerge. The process of creating these works was filmed, and the resulting images constitute the only remaining traces of the artist’s actions, whose concrete, in situ results will disappear at the end of the exhibition. The window display will return to its 16/9 format, opening itself to the projection of mental images. 

 

 

For the fourth consecutive year, the Galeries Lafayette present the event “Windows on Art” from July 9 to August 4, 2012. Previously organized under the name “Paris & Creation,” the 2012 edition now includes four cities: Marseille, Nantes, Paris and Strasbourg. 

During a month, the Galerie Lafayette welcome art, on display in their windows, offering passersby a panoramic vision of the cultural offers of those cities, through excerpts of exhibitions presented by multiple institutions in each city over the course of the summer. For this occasion, each institution creates an original window display by asking artists for contributions. 

In Marseille, the Ateliers of the EuroMéditerrannée for Marseille-Provence 2012, Marseille expos pour la Galerie du 5e, and the Museum of Contemporary Art of the City of Marseille will collectively take over the window of the store on the rue St-Ferréol. 

In Nantes, the Voyage à Nantes, the FRAC des Pays de la Loire, a unique space, and the Musée des Beaux-Arts of Nantes will create four projects that echo their exhibition program for the summer. 

In Paris, the Centre Pompidou, the Cité de l’Architecture et du Patrimoine, the Gaîté Lyrique, the Galliéra – Fashion Museum of the City of Paris (a new participant this year), the Maison Rouge, LE BAL, the Museum of Modern Art of the City of Paris, and the Palais the Toyko will all be represented in the windows of the Galeries Lafayette on the Boulevard Haussmann.

In Strasbourg, the windows will be devoted to the European Center of Contemporary Artistic Action, to the FRAC Alsace, and to the Strasbourg Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art. 

Initiates or neophytes, people from Marseille, Nantes, Paris or Strasbourg as well as tourists visiting those towns, will all be surprised by the creative energy of these installations and will be tempted to prolong their discoveries by visiting the exhibitions. 
 

The group of the Galeries Lafayette has always accompanied contemporary creation and participated in its promotion. Along with the “Windows on Art,” other projects participate in this impetus: the creation of the Gallery of Galleries in 2001 and the sponsorship of the Centre Pompidou, the villa Noailles, as well as the FIAC.