{"id":310,"date":"2022-09-28T15:33:19","date_gmt":"2022-09-28T13:33:19","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/pascalinecuvelier.org\/?page_id=310"},"modified":"2022-09-28T15:37:13","modified_gmt":"2022-09-28T13:37:13","slug":"femme-fatale","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/pascalinecuvelier.org\/index.php\/femme-fatale\/","title":{"rendered":"FEMME FATALE"},"content":{"rendered":"
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D\u00e9cembre 1995<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

The worst calamity that can befall a living artist is to be accorded a retrospective. Suddenly the artist finds herself at her own funeral\u2014eulogized for her accomplishments as the remains of her artistic production lie in state. Kind of rough. ANNETTE MESSAGER<\/strong>, at the Mus\u00e9e d\u2019Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris, managed to elude this trap. Presenting her work under the ironic title of \u201cFaire Parade<\/em>\u201d (Showing off), she disregarded chronology, mixing her various periods and styles. Usually those who exhibit here view this churchlike space as an opportunity to exercise their egos, but Messager had the (almost sacrilegious) idea of dividing the museum\u2019s great nave into a series of intimate spaces. With this show, the spectator was treated to a measure of humor and inventiveness, to the chance to examine, up close, work from each of her playful categories: \u201cLa Collectioneuse<\/em>\u201d (The collector), \u201cLa Femme Pratique<\/em>\u201d (The practical woman), \u201cLa Truqueuse<\/em>\u201d (The cheater), \u201cLa Colporteuse<\/em>\u201d (The gossip), \u201cL\u2019Amoureuse<\/em>\u201d (The woman in love), and \u201cLa Paradeuse<\/em>\u201d (The show-off). All these \u201cpersonas\u201d\u2014mainstays since 1971\u2014are as fresh and astute as ever, making this the first retrospective in memory that didn\u2019t seem fossilized.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u261f TECHNICAL FOUL<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

REBECCA HORN<\/strong>\u2019s work has been highly regarded for years, so naturally everyone was pleased to hear that she was coming to Paris to exhibit in three different places: the chapel of the Salp\u00e9tri\u00e8re, the Galerie de France, and the Jeu de Paume. The result? Disaster. This attentive choreographer of slow-moving machines, this magical builder of little nothings, became a caricature of herself. Blue Bath<\/em>, 1995\u2014a multitude of stacked beds in the chapel\u2014was empty and grandiloquent, the text beneath the vitrines pretentious, and the gigantic cord that once rang at mass shook like a terrified earthworm. Only a little hammer striking a centuries-old wall (Les Petits Mataux<\/em> [The little hammers], 1995) redeemed itself. No emotions at the Galerie de France either, where tired effects (except for the rather droll little drums with their noisy drumsticks) reigned. The biggest fiasco was the retrospective of Horn\u2019s films at the Jeu de Paume: in one, Cutting through the Past<\/em>, the interviewer declares Horn the most significant director he had met since Fellini; another documents her megalomaniacal museum shows, which must have required an armada of technicians to install. The extravagance and gigantic scale of these installations spoiled the delicacy of her original intentions. A real shame.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Pascaline Cuvelier<\/a> writes on art and culture for<\/em> Lib\u00e9ration.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Translated from the French by Jeanine Herman.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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The worst calamity that can befall a living artist is to be accorded a retrospective. Suddenly the artist finds herself at her own funeral\u2014eulogized for her accomplishments as the remains of her artistic production lie in state. Kind of rough. ANNETTE MESSAGER, at the Mus\u00e9e d\u2019Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris, managed to elude this […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-310","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/pascalinecuvelier.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/310","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/pascalinecuvelier.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/pascalinecuvelier.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pascalinecuvelier.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pascalinecuvelier.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=310"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/pascalinecuvelier.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/310\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":315,"href":"https:\/\/pascalinecuvelier.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/310\/revisions\/315"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/pascalinecuvelier.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=310"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}