Ways of seeing: the intersection between transit and migration in contemporary experience.
At the start of the 1970s, John Berger began investigating how “ways of seeing” affect our interpretation of things, as “we only see what we know.” This premise was the point of departure for his curatorial essay which chose, as an exercise in sampling, to work with a repertoire of artists who were part of the Marcel Duchamp Prize from 2000 to 2018, taking these as a representative of the spectrum of contemporary French art (understood as the convergence point for different origins).
Transregionalization, globalization and migration, in the broadest sense of the term, as applied to meaning, imagery, texts and people, are some of the dimensions explored by the artists making up this show. The tensions and contrasts of vital contemporary experience break the surface of the images of their works. The paradox arises when each one of these chooses to inhabit the middle ground between reality, imagination and the presence of rituals, of all kinds, which colors the perspective offered of daily life.
The Marcel Duchamp Prize
International Ambassador to the French Scene
Created in 2000 by the ADIAF, Association for the International Diffusion of French Art, each year the Marcel Duchamp Prize honours a winner from among four artists, either French or residing in France, working in the field of the plastic and visual arts. Organized from the outset in partnership with the Centre Pompidou, this collector’s prize has acquired worldwide prestige, placing it today among the major national benchmark prizes on the international scene.
The Marcel Duchamp Prize has purposely chosen to recognize the most innovative artists of their generation in the aim of encouraging and confronting all artistic forms: painting, sculpture, video, photography, installation… With 80 artists distinguished since its creation in 2000, including 18 winners, the Marcel Duchamp Prize provides a wide panorama of the many varied contemporary art trends in France today.
The organization of exhibitions of the artists singled out by this prestigious prize throws invaluable light on the energy and vitality of the current French scene.
To date, the ADIAF can be credited with fifty of so exhibitions, including 15 worldwide organized with the generous support of the Institut français.
Recent exhibitions
Europe: Paris, London, Brussels, Ludwigshafen/Germany
Asia: Beijing, Shanghai, Tokyo, Seoul
