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"IMMORTELLE", A MILITANT EXHIBITION FOR YOUNG FRENCH FIGURATIVE PAINTING AT THE MO.CO., MONTPELLIER, FROM MARCH 11, 2023
Deployed for the first time in a transversal way on the two art centers, the MO.CO. and the MO.CO. Panacée, the Immortelle exhibition offers a new and ambitious panorama of young French figurative painting. Bringing together more than 400 works by 122 artists, this historic event offers a committed reading of two decades of French painting.
“I might as well get it down on paper straight off, so as to avoid any misunderstandings: Immortelle is a combat exhibition. No question of fiddling, negotiating or compromising on the basis of “You see, some paintings are not so bad”; or “Painting isn’t completely dead in France, there’s still hope”; or “Paintings have been getting better for ten years now.”The point is to affirm a simple truth in all its ramifications: painting is immortal. So it’s just as pointless to go rejoicing at its return, or regretting it, as it would be to ramble on about the death of literature or music.This assertion is accompanied by solidly grounded convictions.
No, the “Retinal painting” reviled by Marcel Duchamp has never stopped producing masterpieces.
No, figurative painting is not reactionary and backward-looking.
No, France is not a country outside of history – the history that Germany, the United States and the emerging countries have never left behind – where painters have created nothing but amusing, decorative paintings. No, Pierre Soulages is not the last great French painter.
Yes, over the last half-century our country has given birth to and welcomed painters of talent and even genius.
Yes, these artists had to sail against the tide, discouraged by art schools, despised by institutions, mocked by the majority of influential critics.
Yes, resistance has paid off; yes, the youngest French painters are reaping the benefits of the uneven struggle that oppressed the previous generation; yes, the battle has finally been won; and no, its heroes have not yet been rewarded.
Yes, French painting today is enjoying a golden age.
My aim as curator of the Immortal exhibition is to reveal the uninterrupted vitality of young French figurative painting, as embodied by artists born since 1970. I was convinced that this buzzing, complex art scene was long overdue for some real attention from a major institution such as ours.The puzzling absence of reaction to such a rich subject has fuelled a considerable – and legitimate – expectation that MO.CO alone will never be able to fully satisfy, even if, for the first time in its history, it has decided to devote its two venues simultaneously to a single exhibition.
Contrary to past ventures, praiseworthy and necessary as they may have been, I have not sought to defend “families” of artists close to my own tastes and aesthetic predilections; rather I have striven for an exhaustiveness which, by definition, can only be imperfect and illusory. What matter that the works of some of the painters selected are far removed from my own preferences? They belong to a narrative that transcends personal opinion. I was not out to establish hierarchies or intangible categories, even if it proved necessary to split the exhibition into two sections with deliberately fluid contours and artists born either side of the first half of the 1980s.
This pivotal point makes it possible to distinguish between two generations that have not lived through the same history or faced the same hardships; two generations that relate differently to the act of painting, two generations whose formal and conceptual concerns do not overlap.The resistant generation’s romantic flights of fancy are matched by the unabashed efficiency of the triumphant generation. Both bear witness to painting’s infinite capacity to relate the present to the the long, decelerated time frame that is the hallmark of art.”
Extract from the catalog of the exhibition Immortelle.
General Curator:
Numa Hambursin, general director of MO.CO.
MO.CO. / guest co-curator:
Amélie Adamo, author, art historian and curator
MO.CO. Panacée / co-curator:
Anya Harrison, curator MO.CO.
ARTISTS LIST
MO.CO.
13 rue de la Republique, 34000, Montpellier
AGRINIER Thomas, AILLAUD Arthur, BARROT Ronan, BATAILLARD Marion, BAZIGNAN Pauline, BELGRAND Adrien, BELIN Murielle, BELYAT-GIUNTA Anya, BENCHAMMA Abdelkader, BENEYTON Julien, BERGER Céline, BERNINI Romain, BIZIEN Vincent, BOISADAN Mathieu, BOITARD Fabien, BOURDAREL Katia, BOUTLIS Alkis, BRESSON Guillaume, BRUNEAU Benjamin, CADIO Damien, CHARLET Marion, CHERKIT Mathieu, CIAVALDINI Sylvain, CLARKE Daniel, DALLÉAS-BOUZAR Dalila, DAVRINCHE Gaël, DESCOSSY Julien, DÉFOSSEZ Benjamin, DERENNE Gregory, DEROUBAIX Damien, DE HEINZELIN Aurélie, DES MONSTIERS Julien, DRIEZ Raynald, DUBOIS Aurélie, FORSTNER Gregory, GOBART Yves, GROOM Orsten, GUINAMAND Cristine, GURRIERI Elsa, HAZELZET Thibault, HOFFMAN Karine, IC Hervé Georges, JAUNE Oda, JÉRÔME Sarah, KORICHIYoucef, LÉGLISE Frédéric, LESOURD Élodie, LEVASSEUR Iris, LÉVY-LASNE Thomas, LIRON Jérémy, LOUTZ Frédérique, MASMONTEIL Olivier, MÉRELLE Fabien, MIN Jung-Yeon, MIRAZOVIĆ Filip, MIQUELIS Gilles, MOCQUET Marlène, MOLK Marc, MOSTYN-OWEN Orlando, NAVARRO Edgardo, NAVI Barbara, NERVI Audrey, NIELSEN Eva, OBRECHT Florence, PAHLAVI Axel, PASIEKA Simon, PENCRÉAC’H Stéphane, PICANDET Lucie, PINARD Guillaume, POUYANDEH Nazanin, PRADALIÉ Abel, PROUX Laurent, RABUS Léopold, RABUS Till, RENAUD Brann, REYMOND Florence, RICOL Raphaëlle, ROEGIERS Antoine, ROUGIER Karine, SABATTÉ Lionel, TABOURET Claire, TOUMANIAN Guillaume, TURSIC Ida et MILLE Wilfried, VELK Marko, VERNY Thomas, VIDOR Vuk, VRANKIĆ Davor, XIE Lei, ZONDER Jérôme.
MO.CO. PANACÉE
14 rue de l'École de Pharmacie, 34000, Montpellier
BAILLY-BORG Carlotta, BARBERAT Rose, BARCELÓ Marcella, BLANC Mireille, CAILLE David, CANESSON Corentin, CAPRON Hugo, CHÉN Xuteng, CLARACQ Jean, CZERMAK ICHTI Neïla, DAL-PRA Diane, DI FOLCO Inès, FLORA Alison, GARCIA-KARRAS Laura, HADDAD Miryam, HAMDAD Bilal, HASCOËT Charles, HERBELIN Nathanaëlle, LEFEBVRE Oscar, MARQUE BOUARET Mathilda, MARTIN Simon, MIRABEL Johanna, RICCIARDI Pacôme, RIVRAIN Cédric, SAFA Christine, SANCHEZ Milène, SARTOR Louise, SHATBERASHVILI Elené, SIVERTSEN Johannes, SOKOL Apolonia, VAGUELSY Gaétan, VENTURA Romain, YASMINEH Rayan.
MO.CO. is an artistic ecosystem that goes from training to collection, production, exhibition and mediation, thanks to the meeting of an art school and two contemporary art centers: the MO.CO. Esba (Superior School of Fine Arts of Montpellier), the MO.CO. Panacée (laboratory of contemporary creation) and the MO.CO. (space dedicated to exhibitions of international scope).
