Curators : Marie-JosÉe JeaN and Christophe Domino
From October 22, 2006 to January 7, 2007. Opening on Saturday October 22, 2006.
Organized by VOX, this exhitbition is presented within the event Septembre de la Photo 2006.
EXHIBITION VIEWS | BIOGRAPHY
BY Marie-JosÉe Jean
Founding figure of the Vancouver art scene, Iain Baxter& (prononced “Baxterand”) remains little-known in Europe but is a mainstay of major collections in North America, where there is renewed interest in his work of late. The Centre National d’Art Contemporain de la Villa Arson, in collaboration with VOX, Centre de l’Image Contemporaine (Montreal), is mounting the first significant show of Baxter&’s work in France; it includes major projects from 1964 to the present day.
By turns Duchampian and McLuhanesque, prolific albeit a tad scattered, a conceptual artist and pioneer of photoconceptualism, Baxter& has for forty years now mapped out a unpredictable, singular oeuvre, freed from the shackles of artistic and cultural hierarchies and resonant with contemporary social issues. He also broke new ground when he situated his artistic practice in a company, the N.E. Thing Co. (soon to be internationally renowned, it was founded in 1966, officially incorporated in 1969 and co-presided over by Baxter& with his wife, Ingrid Baxter, from 1970 to 1978). Its mission was to “produce sensitivity information” via its eleven departments—among them the Research, Projects, Consulting, COP (Copying or Plagiarism) and Film departments, and not one but two Thing departments. Baxter& adopted a singular tone, marked by a derisive nominalism, in developing an out-of-the-ordinary aesthetics that would borrow from the widest possible variety of fields, eventually to encompass site-specific interventions, marketing, telecommunications, investigation, publishing, documentation, teaching, the environment, a restaurant business, circulation, surveying and activism in every field—as well as borrow from a fair share of artistic languages, including photography as a practice documenting the everyday.
This exhibition, an extension of the one originally mounted by VOX en September 2005, brings together some forty works along with an imposing amount of documentation, all testifying to the spirited approach and methods of N.E. Thing Co. and Iain Baxter&. Marie Josée Jean, Artistic Director, VOX Contemporary Image Gallery, and Paris-based art critic Christophe Domino prepared the exposition with the collaboration of the artist, who will on the occasion of the exhibition lead a workshop with Villa Arson students.
Iain Baxter& est représenté par la Galerie Corkin Shopland à Toronto.
Remerciements : Frac Bretagne, Ambassade du Canada en France, Banque d'oeuvres d'art du Conseil des Arts du Canada et les concessionnaires Chrysler de Nice.
Exposition réalisée dans le cadre du Septembre de la Photo 2006 avec le soutien de la Ville de Nice, le Ministère des Affaires étrangères et du Commerce International du Canada.
La Villa Arson est financée par le Ministère de la Culture et de la Communication (Délégation aux arts plastiques), et reçoit le soutien du Conseil Général des Alpes-Maritimes, de la Région Provence-Alpes Côte d'Azur et de la Ville de Nice.
Contact presse : Céline Chazalviel, chazalviel@villa-arson.org, 04 92 02 73 84
Le Centre National d’Art Contemporain est ouvert tous les jours de 14h à 19h,
fermeture le mardi. Entrée libre.
20 avenue Stephen Liégeard F-06105 Nice cedex 2
T 00 33 (0) 4 92 07 73 73 F 00 33 (0) 4 93 84 41 55
cnac@villa-arson.org
www.villa-arson.org
