“On fait le mur” (We Break Out)

Electronic signals, projecting luminous points of light onto the surface of a wall and creating intermittent sounds (Ludovic Lignon, Untitled, 2007). A deconstructed then reconstructed tree and a black monochrome in lacquered metal, “colonized” by a splash of paint that serves as a metaphor for cultural and economic domination (Cristian Andersen, Colonisation, 2006–2007). A series of photographs featuring scale models of unidentified buildings that have inexplicably ended up in the desert, and an acoustic “grid” playing interlaced sounds emerging from four CD players (Samon Takahashi, The Parable of Arable Land, 2007, and Grids, 2006). The construction of a sundial in a public park in the city of Mouans-Sartoux, which simultaneously serves as a court for pétanque players (Cyril Dietrich, Etale [Momentary Pause], 2007). Located both inside and outside the Espace de l’Art Concret, these are some of the works that make up the exhibition titled “On fait le mur” (We Break Out), a title whose inclusive pronoun emphasizes the desire of curator Jean-Marc Avrilla to create a collective portrait of the young artists and several senior figures included in the show. “On fait le mur” articulates questions of contemporary art’s conceptual inheritance, as well as notions of territory—both mental and concrete. With its heterogeneous nature and crisscrossing of styles and techniques, of media, forms, and languages—from critical analysis to random deconstruction—the show accentuates the diversity of territories occupied by each work. It operates indirectly, both in the absence of media and disciplinary boundaries and in opposition to formal constraints.