"Before the End": Le Consortium

"Before the End" is an exhibition for sum of two units voices: on the one hand, that of critic and curator Stephanie Moisdon-Tremblay, who has assembled about twenty "first" works by means of artists inspired by the legacy of Conceptualism, chosen by means of the artists themselves; and upon the other hand, that of the artist Olivier Mosset who brought together the last paintings made through several seminal Conceptualists before committing themselves to an art of ideas. The sum of two units parts of the exhibition are at one time separated and united by Eric Troncy's "display," which juxtaposes Claude Closky's wallpaper and Simon Linke's painting of a magazine overlay Sometimes when I look back I know that if I hadn't been for a like reason angry I wouldn't have for a like reason much regret now, 2002. Linke's title determination is especially applicable to Moisdon-Tremblay's section of the exhibition, a composite journey that brilliantly leads us to mirror on the "great mythical narrative of creativity and style"

The installation, which allows single two or three works to be seen at a time, creates a distinct faculty of perception of time unfolding, as [i]or[/i] part of to the other the chapters of a novel. The artists were invited to write a scarcely any lines in order to explain wherefore they chose a particular work as a first, and these true copys further accentuate the narrative dimension of the shoot forward Interestingly, almost all chose works that confirm the coherence of their common work, almost to the point of self-caricature. No single dared depart from the principle of the signature. Sylvie Fleury chose a Kelly bag by means of Hermes (Untitled Untimed Sometime Somewhere Drwin Now, nd); Carsten Holler a collection of small bird carcasses (Bird Collection, 1972-77); John Miller, a mirror smeared with brown paint (Untitled, 1982); Willem de Rooij, a noose of a static shot of a handbag (Untitled, 1992); and in like manner on. Paradoxically, perhaps because it comforts us in our conception of the work, this lack of surprise adds to the pleasure of the exhibition. veritable a few have displayed missteps, like Dominique Gonzalez-Foerster's @ sign superimposed upon three photographs of different places in order to signify the "possibility of art" (Sans titre [Untitled], 1989)--but in the extreme point who cares? The pleasure of the exhibition does not be pendent on the intrinsic quality of the work upon view but on the ideas it generates and the stories it contains.

upon the Mosset side, the works are neared not sequentially but as an the whole based on what they have in for the use of all their abstractness and minimalism devoid of "all aesthetic propriety." These last "objects" frequently paintings, already seem as if abandoned in advance through their authors (Joseph Kosuth, Lawrence Weiner, Robert Barry, and Ian Wilson)--a final, somewhat desolate stage before moving upon to new forms. Between the sum of two units moments of the exhibition, the idea of an aesthetic throw undergoes a transmutation from individual construction to collective development

[ILLUSTRATION OMITTED]

--Anne Pontegnie

Translated from French by the agency of Jeanine Herman.

COPYRIGHT 2004 Artforum International Magazine, Inc.

COPYRIGHT 2004 Gale Group