THE BODY AS SCULPTURE
VIDEO-PERFORMANCES

Presentation based on the Nouveaux Médias collection,
Musée national d’art moderne / Centre de création industrielle, Centre Pompidou

As part of its contemporary art programme and in collaboration with the Centre Pompidou, the Musée Rodin opens a presentation cycle that will cover three years, devoted to the video artist who, between 1960 and 1970, sought to emphasize the relation to the body in their artistic practice, particulary through performance.

The first session will be presented at the Hôtel Biron from January 5th through March 28th, 2010. One by one, four filmed works by an artist whose approach contributed to the bases of "historic contemporary art" will be presented.

BRUCE NAUMAN (born in 1941)

At the end of the 1960’s, influenced by such choregraphers as Merce Cunnigam and Meredith Monk, Bruce Nauman developed a practice whereby he creates a show with his own body through th repetition of simple gestures with his own studio as background. The behavorial studies, of which he is the main subject, are documented in a series of video shot beginning in 1968 and constitute an important part of the work of this emblematic artist.

From January 5th through 31st 2010

VITO ACCONCI (born in 1940)

With the intent to explore time, or space, or social and cultural networks, this American artist produced a series of videos filming his own body at the beginning of the 1970s. Whether fighting his own shadow or with his reflection, or imitating the simple actions of others, or caressing her belly with a cockroach, Vito Acconci forces the limits of the perception of the body.

From February 2nd through 28th 2010

SANJA IVEKOVIC (born in 1949)

In the 1970s and 1980s, Sanja Ivekovic developed an artistic practice which was far removed from "official art" and the predominant tendencies in the former Yugoslavian communist regime. Using photographic collage, performance or video, she questions the way feminine identity builds up itself compared to the social and political spheres, and reciprocal influences between public imaginery and intimate notions. The video works shown here give an outline of the practice of this artist rather unrecognized in France.

From March 2nd through 28th 2010

The Nouveaux Médias Collection of the Musée national d’art moderne/Centre de création industrielle of the Centre Pompidou is at present one of the most important worldwide, both in terms of the number of works acquired and presented and of the conceptual ground they cover. It explores fifty years of the history of image and sound at the heart of the great movements of contemporary art. The video tapes of the collection are viewable in their entirety on the consultation posts of the Espace des Collections Nouveaux Médias et Film at the Musée of the Centre Pompidou, Level 4.