This exhibition presents a number of artworks from the Fonds régional d’art contemporain Île-de-France (Île-de-France Regional Contemporary Art Fund), by artists working in the realm of the fantastical, carrying on the legacy of the medieval predilection for the hybrid and outlandish figures that inhabit our imaginations, tinged with the sense of heroic fantasy that is a frequent gateway to the Middle Ages – an often-romanticised era.
Moving through the museum, these chimeras are scattered among the museum’s own artworks, offering their interpretations of western medieval art and perpetuating its sources and their meanings: those of a predominantly Christian world imbued with spirituality, in which the visible and invisible are intertwined.
These contemporary artworks create a dialogue with medieval architecture and sculpture, in that their forms and patterns share the same wondrous, natural, botanical and animal inspirations. Many are also rooted in the history of decorative arts and religious ornaments; by revisiting the shapes of drinking horns, aquamaniles or reliquaries, for example, they refresh our imaginations of ancient customs and uses. The world that interests these contemporary artists is, first and foremost, a time that precedes the humanism of the Renaissance and the rationalism of the Enlightenment; a time whose everyday workings they strive to perceive. Directly echoing the historical artefacts showcased in the museum, these artworks help us explore the social conventions and activities of a world unto itself.
The same ancient traditions, legends and texts that fuelled the inspiration of medieval artists can be found in Jacopo Belloni’s “Green Man”, Corentin Darré’s drinking horns, Frederik Exner’s frogs and Xolo Cuintle’s “Soft Acanthus”, all of which speak to the pervasive animal and botanical motifs that permeate artworks of the past. Youri Johnson and Marion Verboom perpetuate certain votive practices by imagining contemporary forms of devotion, in which the same taste for the affective seems to forge a link between the eras, and enables us to grasp the internalisation of faith. The religious sphere generates artistic creation, and the works of Diego Giacometti and Alison Flora help us to understand the supernatural or divine power invoked therein. Finally, Erik Dietman and Richard Fauguet create echoes of items used in everyday and aristocratic life, while Lou le Forban does the same for popular and festive artefacts.
We thereby come to understand the historical transformations or legacies from which the artists, who are themselves visitors to the museum, draw inspiration in order to communicate the richness of a history that continues to fuel our imaginations and everyday customs, via the tastes and practices that emerged or took hold during the medieval era.
The exhibition is being held as part of the Berserk & Pyrrhia, art contemporain et art médiéval (“Berserk & Pyrrhia, Contemporary and Medieval Art”) programme, curated by Céline Poulin, director of the Frac Île-de-France.
Séverine Lepape, director of the Musée de Cluny, thanks the Frac, the artists and the Musée de Cluny team for putting this exhibition together.
