LA FORCE DE L'ART

Cette initiative, engagée à la demande du Premier ministre par le ministère de la culture et de la communication, répond au besoin de donner une plus large visibilité à la diversité de la création artistique contemporaine.

A state-sponsored project that proposes to seek out invisible contemporary art. Just the sort of thing governments do so well.

[Pause.] It is sure to disappoint even before pocketing the 7 € admit ticket.

FRENCH MODERN ART SHOWCASE OPENS AMID CONTROVERSY
Critics Of Prime Minister Dub Event 'Expo Villepin'

PARIS May 10, 2006 (Guardian) - La Force de l'art, a showcase for 200 contemporary artists born or resident in France, is the pet project of Mr De Villepin, a published poet,* who prides himself on his cultural sensibility and reportedly carries a folder of his verse in his briefcase at all times.

Mickey Mouse's genitals, plastic cats with Hitler moustaches, and a paint-flecked portrait of the French prime minister, Dominique de Villepin, were among the works on show yesterday as Paris's modern art triennial opened amid controversy and picketing.

LA MATRAQUE DE L'ART
The Government Knows What You Should Like

First, Mr De Villepin only announced his plans in December, sparking a mad rush to curate the works and leaving too little time to produce a catalogue. Some in the arts world fumed that among the 15 curators only one was an artist, and works were gathered from public and private collections, rather than created specifically.

La Libération (En mai, Villepin fait l'expo qui lui plaît) maintains that Dom blatantly rushed the exhibition to improve his image with the public before next year's election. If so, does he think the electorate wants a curator for president? Bernard Blistène, the government official (Inspecteur général à la création artistique au Ministère de la Culture et de la Communication) minding the show, denies the charge while substantiating the rumor: “If contemporary art won elections, we would know about it.”

Then the painter Gérard Fromanger withdrew his work, saying he was not going to "dance for De Villepin" in a exhibition he felt was a political public relations exercise for the prime minister.

In the sumptuously refurbished Grand Palais, which hosted the 1900 world exhibition, organisers yesterday described the eclectic pieces as a "rendezvous with French creativity".

Wait! Go back and click on the link above for le Grand Palais. There is absolutely no mention anywhere of this €4M** state-funded exhibition.

Outside a painter, Pierre Gilou, handed out leaflets bearing a quote from the 19th-century French realist painter Gustave Courbet:

"The state understands nothing about art."

Gilou said: "This exhibition does not represent French art in any way ... for a long time in France, art has been suffocated by the government."

A sentiment echoed by Eric Meyer, the editor of Arts Magazine (a French arts monthly):

“This is a bit 1960s France. ... It is not up to the state to organise this. Why can’t private patronage take charge?”

LA FARCE DE L'ART
The Public Already Knows What The Government Likes

And Messrs. Gilou et Meyer's positions are pretty much ours. There are certain activities -- those involving creative expression -- that we don't want the government directly trying to shape. Other than old-line communists, who wants the state producing movies or music? Who would read books written at the pitch of a tax audit? No one wants the government in the business of making low- and middle-brow art, so why accept government high-brow enfranchisement? Perhaps because the public has little to no interest in high-brow arts dominated by politics and devoid of aesthetics. [Short but meaningful pause.] Which is exactly why we don't want the state picking high-brow favorites.

In 1972 then-president George Pompidou set out to define the contemporary aesthetic for the French public. L'Expo Pompidou is remembered not for the elevation of French culture but the necessity of the CRS (Compagnies Republicaines de Securité, scil., riot police) to beat back the artists.

Please drop us a line if you visit Expo Villepin. Let us know what the prime minister fancies.

La Force De L'Art
Le Grand Palais

Open to the public from 10 May to 25 June 2006, from noon to 8:00P, everyday (public holidays included), except Tuesday. Last admits 7:00P

Nef du Grand Palais
Porte principale, avenue Winston Churchill
75008 Paris
Bus : Lignes 42, 72, 73, 83, 93
Métro : Lignes 1 et 13, station Champs-Elysées Clemenceau

* Urgences de la poésie ([Casablanca] : Eds. de la Maison de la Poésie du Maroc, July 2005) includes three poems by Villepin, "Elegies barbares", "Le droit d’aînesse", and "Sécession". Good luck finding this gem.

** Reported elsewhere as €2M.

UPDATE 05.16.06: More from M. Meyer:

"Politically the show has very uncomfortable overtones. It makes us think of times long ago when Louis XIV would select [court] painters and declare which artists were good enough to paint for the king. ... I can understand why some artists do not want to be associated with a government show.

We all have our hobbies, you know - and poetry - well, that's very nice. But I think the prime minister maybe has other concerns to deal with. At the moment in France we have many crises - I think Mr de Villepin has other priorities."

PFFT (What is this?): Dom the aesthete 1 | Dom the curator ½ | Rayonnement français ¼