L’État du Ciel is a homage to many artists’, poets’ and philosophers’ reflections on the physical, moral and political factors that shape our world. Over the course of a season, it will present over ten proposals or exhibitions centering on that theme, as artists adopt André Breton’s definition of their role, as applied to Giorgio de Chirico: “The artist, that sentinel on the endless road, always on the lookout.” As far back as Goya, if not further, modern and contemporary artists have attentively examined contemporary reality. They often depict the landscape of our anxieties – dread, alarm, revolt, utopia – and suggest poetic ways of transforming the present. If we study the world as one might scrutinize an image, today stops being an imposed destiny and becomes a changing surface that we could, perhaps, transform.

New exhibition formats stem from these observations, innovative to the extent that the word “exhibition” may no longer apply. Thus, we will see Georges Didi-Huberman transpose the theme of lamentation into the language of film, inspired by Aby Warburg’s Mnemosyne Atlas; Gérard Wacjman and Marie de Brugerolle reflect on the theme of the fall, from the Berlin Wall to the Twin Towers; and Thomas Hirschhorn, with his immense installation Flamme éternelle, which involves nearly 200 intellectuals and poets in a debate focusing on the interconnections between art and philosophy and the ways in which these affect our consciousness.

Add to that ten fictions conceived by Hiroshi Sugimoto on the theme of humanity‘s disappearance, Angelika Markul’s scrupulous exploration of the Chernobyl and Fukushima disasters, David Douard’s viral hybrids of bodies and machines, and Ed Atkins’ digital variations. Each represents a symptom of the world’s general state, focusing on both contemplation and action. L’État du ciel – a title borrowed from Victor Hugo’s Promontoire du songe, in which the author wrote that “the sky’s normal state is at night” – addresses the current time, a political time in which seeing is already a means of action.

Part 1

– Nouvelles histoires de fantômes [New Ghosts Stories]
14 feb – 07 sept
Georges Didi-Huberman et Arno Gisinger

– Mo’Swallow
14 feb – 11 may
David Douard

– Terre de départ [Land of departure]
14 feb – 11 may
Angelika Markul
(Laureate du Prix SAM pour l’art contemporain 2012)

– Des choses en moins, des choses en plus [Something Less, Something More]
14 feb – 02 march
Coproduction Centre national des arts plastiques

– Family Business
From 13 feb
 

Part 2

– Aujourd’hui le monde est mort [Lost Human Genetic Archive]
25 apr-07 sept
Hiroshi Sugimoto

– Flamme éternelle
24 apr-07 sept
Thomas Hirshchorn

– Les Modules
Fondation Pierre Bergé – Yves Saint Laurent
25 apr-23 jun
Vivien Roubaud, Thomas Teurlai, Tatiana Wolska
En collaboration avec la Villa Arson

– Interventions on the building
Natalie Czech
Emilie Ding
Sheila Hicks

Part 3

– Bastards
Ed Atkins
06 Jun – 07 Sept

– All that falls
06 Jun – 07 Sept
Ronald Amstutz, Vasco Araújo, Julien Bismuth, Jean-Pascal Flavien, Dominique Ghesquière, Lola Gonzàlez, Camille Henrot, Willy Kautz, Agnieszka Kurant, Julie Legrand, Urs Lüthi, Michael C. McMillen, Steve McQueen, Philip Metz, Deimantas Narkevičius, Tony Oursler, Daniel Pommereulle, Benoit Pype, Delphine Reist, Lili Reynaud Dewar, Jimmy Robert, Miri Segal, Pablo Vargas Lugo
Curators: Marie de Brugerolle & Gérard Wajcman

– Cent ans plus tard
06 June-07 Sept
LE PAVILLON NEUFLIZE 0BC

– Teoría (La cabeza de Goliath)
Eduardo Basualdo
06 June-07 Sept
Produit par SAM Art Projects

– Der Aron Schreckmuster-Preis [The Aron Schreckmuster Price]
Michaela Eichwald
11 Jul– 07 Sept
(LAURÉATE DU PRIX LAFAYETTE 2012)

– Les Modules
Fondation Pierre Bergé – Yves Saint Laurent
11 Jul – 07 Sept
Jean-Marie Appriou
Alessandro Piangiamore
Charbel-Joseph H. Boutros