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Magicians of the Earth
| Article
# : |
16748 |
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Section : |
THE ARTS
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| Issue
Date : |
9 / 1989 |
2,260 Words |
| Author
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Michael Gibson
Michael Gibson, author of a number of books on art, is the
Paris art critic for the International Herald Tribune and a
frequent contributor to publications in Europe and the United
States. |
The monster show presented in Paris during the summer under the title Magiciens de la Terre (Magicians of the Earth) will be remembered as the first-ever attempt at a planetary exhibition of contemporary art. Four years in the making, the show assembled works of one hundred artists from some forty countries--mostly countries and regions that have been largely overlooked by the mainline art establishment. It filled the entire top floor of the Pompidou Center as well as the whole of the six-plus acre converted cattle shed of La Grande Halle de la Villette. In many ways, Magiciens was more like a worldwide biennale of a new kind rather than a conventional exhibition.
With some exceptions, reception by the French press was cool to frosty. The organizers themselves were all too aware that any departure from what might be described as the floating consensus of the art establishment carried risks of critical penalties--penalties all the more painful in view of the venture's 30 million franc ($5 million) price tag--but they plunged ahead anyway, damning the consequences and producing a hybrid that was provocative, uneven, and engagingly vulnerable.
The show was vulnerable because it raised more issues than it could reasonably hope to handle. These issues needed to be raised, however. Critics and theoreticians will be forced, one hopes, to come up with a new approach to art; in other words, a new approach to life itself, taking into account both the reasoned skepticism fostered by science and the irrepressible need for a meaningful existence felt by ordinary people.
In any event, the show, conceived by topflight curators who are well
... (1993 of 13203 Characters)
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