Foundation Cartier

Today we went to the Foundation Cartier which was another lovely building designed by  Jean Nouvel. Once again I had no idea what to expect when we got there, no surprise there i’m sure. The Foundation was displaying work by Ron Muek, whose work I had stumbled upon while online at some point online. I remember being really awe struck by the pieces and especially creeped out when seeing the pieces with a scaled comparison. 

I think his work at a surface level really taps into the fear instinct in people. They’re size and life likeness makes them seem that at any moment these sculptures could come to life and haunt you. While I was there I heard a lot of people saying that they swore they saw them moving in the corner of their eyes or breathing. It really hits a nerve with people. 

For the exercise I was responsible for both neighborhood and site for “Woman with Sticks” and “The Couple” and I think for the first time I really understood and could decipher the curatorial perspective. I really liked being able to pick out all of the different intentions and messages that were conveyed through the positioning. 

For “Woman with Sticks” what I found striking about her was that everything about her positioning brought you back around to see her in front of the window and consequently in context. I would go into more detail but I don’t want this blog post to be too long and I think the curation of “The Couple” ends up being a lot more interesting. 

On to “The Couple” then. The position of this sculpture in the space makes it the fourth thing that a person would see upon entering the space. The sculpture is also situated in a room that encourages circulation around the sculpture which is an imperative part of the experience. If you don’t circle around the piece, you aren’t able to see the violent gesture of the boy gripping the girl’s arm. 

I also noted that if you happen to stand in front of the piece looking at it and the people behind it the sculpture sort of melds into crowd, which is huge for the message of the piece. It sort of explains that domestic abuse is something that can easily go unnoticed and it’s happening in every crowd.

I even noticed a couple of people taking the same stance as the couple. The woman leaning in to sort of hear what the man has to say about the piece, creates that same effect.

Over all the day was just a really wonderful experience that I couldn’t possible completely summarize.