Metz, le 21avril 2011
Press release
"Contemporary Art told to Children" by Gianni Colosimo An exhibition for children from 8 to 80 1 July to 4 September 2011 at the Centre Pompidou-Metz
Press relations
This summer, from 1 July to 4 September, the Centre-Pompidou Metz presents a project by the Italian artist Centre Pompidou-Metz
Gianni Colosimo. After a series of live performances, the versatile Studio space is hosting "Contemporary Art
Louise Moreau
told to Children" as its first exhibition.
Telephone +33 (0)3 87 15 39 63 louise.moreau@centrepompido
Gianni Colosimo takes a new look and reinterprets emblematic works of the 20th and 21st centuries.
u-metz.fr
"These works were chosen because they can be instantly transposed into the world of children. They tell
Claudine Colin
stories. The artist brings them back to life and, in certain cases, renews them by exploring their numerous
Communication
facets.
The exhibition takes an original and lighthearted view of contemporary art," curator Patrick Amine
Valentine Dolla
explains.
Telephone +33 (0)1 42 72 60 01 centrepompidoumetz@claudine colin.com
La mozzarella in carrozzella di Gino (De Dominicis) © Susana Soriano Serpas
The exhibition actively engages visitors, both children and adults, by encouraging them to use their imagination. Images, sculptures and installations reveal their surprising, offbeat and humorous nature. These works are also an introduction to the history of art in the latter half of the twentieth century and early twentyfirst century. "My input as an artist is to suggest a new way of seeing the works. Children can engage with them in a fun way, using their reasoning to make their own interpretations. The original reference works are the catalyst. Some were imagined by the great masters of contemporary art. This is an aesthetically informative exhibition, intended to interest children, and adults too, in the wonderful and sometimes slightly obscure world of contemporary art," says Gianni Colosimo. Gianni COLOSIMO - biography Gianni Colosimo (b. 1953, lives and works in Turin, Italy) began his artistic career as a performance artist at Galleria Giorgio Persano in Turin, one of Italy's most prestigious galleries, with Freud mein freund (1981), and at the Bologna Performance
Festival and the ICC in Antwerp.
These were followed by Il grande sonno della trapezista, at the Galleria Nazionale d’Arte
Moderna in Rome, Nebbia di Latte at the Castello di Rivoli (Turin, 1984), and Gli amori dei sette peccati (1990). He also wrote a dissertation on Yves Klein and the Theatre of the Void. After a parenthesis, he created Wallpaper (il vortice del desiderio è privo d’orizzonte) (2006), an installation at the Galleria Pack (Milan, 2006), for which he papered the entire gallery with dollar bills. He twice took part in the Sculpture Biennale in Carrara, in 2008 and 2009. He publishes anonymous aesthetic ads in art journals such as Artforum, Exibart and Mousse. He has been invited to take part in the 2011 Venice Biennale in the Italian pavilion, and in the Alessandria Biennale. Patrick AMINE, curator - biography Patrick Amine is an essayist, art critic and literary critic with Artpress, La Revue des Deux Mondes and L’Infini. He studied composition at the Marseilles Conservatory of Music. A curator of exhibitions in Europe for fifteen years, he was awarded the Prize for Cultural Innovation for Nature Mutante (Auch, 1994). He has programmed artists such as Jan Fabre, N+N Corsino, Joel-Peter Witkin, Loris Cecchini and Pascal Bernier.
In 2005 he curated César, Portrait Intime (Dessins inédits) at the
Botanical Museum in Brussels. Again in Brussels, in 2007, he showed drawings by Hervé Di Rosa and wrote an essay on his work, Journal modeste (published by Buchet-Chastel). He also curated Un siècle d’art russe et soviétique at the Musée des Ducs de Wurstemberg, in Monbéliard (2008). A literary consultant for France Culture-Radio France (1999-2004) and a lecturer at Iselp (Brussels) and Ensba (Paris), he is the author of Une Vie, une déflagration, Entretiens avec Louis Calaferte (Denoël) and Petit éloge de la colère (Gallimard-Folio, 2008).
VISITOR INFORMATION Opening hours Centre Pompidou-Metz is open every day except Tuesdays and May 1 Monday..........11am – 6pm Tuesday........closed Wednesday.…11am – 6pm Thursday..…11am – 8pm Friday…….11am – 8pm Saturday.....10am – 8pm Sunday….10am – 6pm Admission: 7€. Free for under 26 (full list of concessions at www.centrepompidou-metz.fr). An entrance ticket provides admission to all the exhibitions showing on that day. Tours for children and teens Individuals: Wednesday, 1pm and 2pm Saturday & Sunday, 10am, 11am, 12pm, 2pm, 3pm, 4pm, 5pm Tour length: 1 hour Price: 3€ Sign up directly at the Centre Pompidou-Metz on the day of your visit. Limited numbers per group. Community centres, health and social services centres and after-school clubs Monday / Wednesday / Thursday / Friday 9.30am - 11am and 1pm – 2.30pm By advance booking on +33 (0)3 87 15 39 83
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