French Cultural Ministry Threatened; Bourriaud to Curate Tate Triennial; Sidibé Honored; Lévy Leaves Palais de Tokyo; Emigrant House Awarded Museum of the Year; the Fate of Kiefer's Provence Studio
FRENCH MINISTRY OF CULTURE TO DISAPPEAR?
Freshly elected French president Nicolas Sarkozy has not yet taken office. But as Le Monde's Christophe Jakubyszyn reports, Sarkozy is already finalizing his radical new vision for the French state—a hard-hitting reform that promises to redefine several ministries and even eliminate the ministry of culture. "It's Sarkozy himself who's making the government," said François Fillon, a close ally and the new French prime minister in waiting, due to replace Dominique de Villepin.
In a bid to reduce the French state, Sarkozy plans to merge certain ministries; the ministry of culture may be looking forward to a fusion with the ministry of education "in order to promote artistic education in schools," writes Jakubyszyn. If a fusion is not in the works, then the ministry of culture—like the ministry of agriculture—may well be axed from the state.
Whatever Sarkozy's plan for the ministry, to be announced this week, the results promise a drastic change for the relationship between the French state and contemporary art.
BOURRIAUD TO CURATE TATE TRIENNIAL
French critic and curator Nicolas Bourriaud has been named curator of the Tate Triennial by Tate Britain. Bourriaud was co–founding director of Paris's Palais de Tokyo with Jérôme Sans, who is now the director of programming at Baltic Contemporary Art Centre in Gateshead. Bourriaud is not the first non-Brit to take on the job of curating the Tate Triennial. The last edition, in 2006, was curated by Beatrix Ruf, the director of Zurich's Kunsthalle.
SIDIBÉ WINS GOLDEN LION FOR LIFETIME ACHIEVEMENT
Prizes are already being determined for the upcoming 52nd Venice Biennale. As AFP reports, the Malian photographer Malick Sidibé will be awarded the prestigious Golden Lion for lifetime achievement. "During his career, which mostly took place in a small studio open to a road in Bamako, the capital of Mali, Sidibé was the portraitist par excellence of his city and his country," the Biennale press office stated. Sidibé, who was born in 1936 in the village of Soloba, opened his Bamako studio in 1960. His work became known and appreciated internationally when the photographer participated in the first "Rencontres Internationales de Bamako" exhibition in 1994. The Venice Biennale runs June 10–November 21.
LÉVY LEAVING PALAIS DE TOKYO
Maurice Lévy is leaving his position as the president of the administration council at the Palais de Tokyo—Site de Création Contemporaine. As Le Monde reports, Lévy, the head of the French advertising firm Publicis, officially stated that he does not have enough time "to take care of" his duties at the head of the Palais board. Speaking on behalf of Lévy, Pierre Cornette de Saint-Cyr, the vice president of the Palais, explained that the "dispute with the Centre Pompidou," which intends to establish a branch inside the Palais building "was frustrating [Lévy]."
According to the report, Lévy is not the only one who is frustrated with the new neighbors, who were imposed by outgoing president Jacques Chirac. Marc-Olivier Wahler, the director of the Palais since February 2006, has also toyed with the idea of quitting his post. The arrival of a Pompidou branch threatens to change the power balance inside the vast building, although the existing Palais has been guaranteed independence in its programming.
"I want to be able to work fully independently," Wahler told Le Monde. The board seemed to have followed his point of view, at least according to Cornette de Saint-Cyr. "The art leads, and the board must follow," said Cornette de Saint-Cyr, who will be at least temporarily taking over Lévy's role. "I don't want there to be a block."
EMIGRANT HOUSE AWARDED MUSEUM OF THE YEAR
Das Deutsche Auswandererhaus (the German Emigrant House) in Bremerhaven has been awarded the "European Museum of the Year" for 2007. As the Süddeutsche Zeitung reports, the European Museum Forum (EMF), an independent group of museum experts, singled out the Auswandererhaus for its multimedia approach to exploring the theme of migration, "one of the most important questions of our era." The award, dubbed the "Museum Oscar," has been distributed by the EMF for the past thirty years.
WHAT’S TO COME OF KIEFER’S PROVENCE HOME?
Details are still forthcoming regarding Anselm Kiefer’s donation of his Provence atelier to the Guggenheim Foundation. As Die Süddeutsche Zeitung's Holger Liebs reports, Kiefer left Germany sixteen years ago for Barjac, a city close to Nîmes, where he set up a vast studio—dubbed La Ribaute—in a former silk-spinning factory. Come September, the artist will be moving to Paris's Marais, where he has had a residence for several years. The move will facilitate Kiefer's work on his massive installation "Sternenfall" inside the Grand Palais, as well as his participation as a "guest curator" at the Louvre, a role that begins this October and will culminate with in situ works created for the museum.
The Guggenheim studio deal—first reported in the Art Newspaper—remains vague. Neither Guggenheim head Thomas Krens nor Kiefer's gallery Thaddaeus Ropac has commented on the deal, let alone the financial details. "In this connection," writes Liebs, "it's surely no coincidence that the Basque Guggenheim branch in Bilbao opened its halls for a large Kiefer retrospective through September 3."
Whether or not another retrospective is in the works, the atelier promises a more spectacular show. "With this agreement," writes Liebs, "one of the most peculiar, and surely largest, artistic bastions of the present would be made publicly accessible"—although it is not yet clear what role La Ribaute will be given. Perhaps the best comparison for Kiefer's Provence home is Donald Judd's Minimalist synthesis of the arts in Marfa, Texas. But instead of a geometric arrangement in the desert sand, a raw wilderness, always open to the new, will reign in Barjac.