Absurde, vous avez dit absurde ?: Group show

4 - 26 July 2014 17 rue des Filles du Calvaire 75003 Paris

With :  Asger Carlsen, Thierry Fontaine, Gilbert Garcin, Glen Baxter, Joachim Mogarra, Ellen Kooi, Paul Pouvreau, Pauline Horovitz, Philippe Ramette, Pierrick Sorin, Plonk & Replonk, Sigurdur Gudmundsson, Simon Quéheillard, Stéphane Bérard, Thomas Mailaender, Yann Toma

Sisyphus, condemned by the gods for having disobeyed them, was forced to roll a rock up a mountain that he had to eternally bring back to the top because the stone fell back down. The absurdity of the repetition of his endless and aimless action is a strong symbol of the fatality of the human condition. Yet, for Albert Camus, in his 1942 essay, it is possible to envision a happy Sisyphus, for he can find fulfillment in the action undertaken rather than in its justification. In the same way, many artists use the absurd to challenge our rational conception of the world.

 

In a world where reason rules, the irruption of the absurd confronts us with our relationship to normality. By definition it does not respect the laws of logic and common sense. It refers to a gap between our reasoned perception of the world and what escapes us. The absurd is out of the ordinary and allows us to get off the beaten track. It thus authorizes all the distortions of direction, all the excesses. The absurd is multiple and can be extravagant, illogical, incongruous, paradoxical, subversive and even all that at once.