Amar Kanwar (New Delhi, 1964)
On Sunday, 3 April 2022 at 14h, a one-hour guided tour with an English-speaking guide will be organized at the Musée cantonal des Beaux-Arts Lausanne. The price of this visit is CHF 20.- per person. It’s actually the entrance fee to the temporary exhibition, the guided tour is free of charge. The entrance is free of charge with a museum pass, Raiffeisen card, Swiss travel pass.
More information on the guided tour and booking: www.mcba.ch/agenda/guided-tour-resister-encore-in-english/
Résister, encore
The Musée cantonal des Beaux-Arts is currently hosting an exhibit entitled: Résister, encore. This collective show portrays various forms of resistance that artists have developed when faced with the great challenges of our age – those forms amount to survival strategies. As we are currently aware of the tensions around the world, especially those happening in Ukraine, we are reminded how important it is to "not forget". These artists, also known as Resistant Artists, are so important for the memories of wartime to not be forgotten.
This group show, the last to be curated by Bernard Fibicher before he steps down as director in June, illustrates the forms of resistance (withdrawal, silence, resilience, outcry, indignation, protestation, action, refection, satire) that artists have developed when faced with the great challenges of our age. Those forms amount to survival strategies.
Bernard Fibicher explains, "Art, culture in general has always been a force of resistance in building an alternative world. To think, to find a way to act differently means not being satisfied with what already exists. All of the forms of resistance we’ve seen in the world over the past 10 years (the Yellow Vests, #MeToo, Black Lives Matter, the Umbrella Revolution…) and the growing number of people who are rebelling through speech and action
against all kinds of “systems” have reinforced in my mind the idea that we need to highlight art’s exemplary role as the training ground for devising and lending concrete form to ways of resisting."
Banu Cennetoğlu, Gurbets Diary
Numerous artists explore multiple ways of resisting. How did you go about selecting the artworks to be featured in the show?
BF: It was absolutely necessary that we avoid mounting a “political” exhibition, or agit-prop, as the trend was called in the ‘60s and ‘70s. The aim was to find forceful pieces that bear their own message alone, that work by themselves and on their own terms, without illustrating an idea, theory, or movement that comes from outside of the realm of art. The 12 featured artists use a great variety of techniques of resistance, that run from visual shock (Margolles, Cahn) to an extremely differentiated perceptual experience
(Anwar, Kimsooja). The show had to be more diversified with respect to the forms of resistance than to the possible themes (the list of which is nearly infinite).
What role do museums play in the field of resistance?
BF: The museum has an extremely important role to play in an age when everything tends to take on a virtual existence and function in a binary way. The museum calls our certainties into question, teaches us to see the world differently, in a way that is more nuanced, more open and participatory.
The museum is an ideal training ground for understanding the positive dynamic of resistance but also for overcoming resistance (for example, the fear of contemporary art) that brings us to a standstill.
What would you like visitors to take away with them after their tour of the show?
BF: Powerful images, emotions, thoughts about the world in which we live and in the building of which we are called to take part more actively, more consciously.
The works featured are not political manifestos of this or that allegiance, but rather independent creations and models of alternative worlds.
Résister, encore explores exemplary strategies of resistance, both individual and collective, that are being devised in response to the great challenges of our age. By operating in the realm of the “useless”, and not having to conform to the “natural order of things”, the artist is free to raise all the fundamental questions without submitting to a given political, religious, economic, moral, or even esthetic context.
An increasingly overt distrust of neoliberal capitalism, the political class, or the systemic privileges of certain members of society is pushing a growing number of people to protest police violence, homophobia, corruption, sexual harassment, massive deforestation, White supremacy, restrictions stemming from the pandemic, wind turbines, the Islamic headscarf, immigration, globalization, etc. Resistance is a fundamental component of art.
Featured artists:
Miriam Cahn
Banu Cennetoğlu
Michel François
Philip Guston
Fabrice Gygi
Thomas Hirschhorn
Amar Kanwar
William Kentridge
Kimsooja
Sigalit Landau
Nalini Malani
Teresa Margolles
Zanele Muholi
Félix Vallotton
Résister, encore
18 February through 15 May 2022
Tuesday through Sunday: 10h-18h
Thursday: 10h-20h
Monday: closed
Easter Monday: 18 April 2022, 10h-18h
Musée cantonal des Beaux-Arts de Lausanne
Place de la Gare 16
1003 Lausanne
021 316 34 45
www.mcba.ch/en/exhibitions/resister-encore
Admission:
Adults: CHF 20.– / 15.–
Up to 25 years old: free
First Saturday of the month: free
Events:
Guided tour (in French):
Every Sunday: at 11h
Thursdays: 3 and 31 March, 7 and 21 April, 5 May 2022 at 18h30
Guided tour (in English):
Sunday, 3 April 2022 at 14h
Guided tour by the exhibition curator, Bernard Fibicher, (in French):
Sunday, 15 May 2022 at 15h
Family tour: “Conte-moi les résistances”
By Céline Cerny, author and storyteller
Sundays 13 March, 10 April, 8 May 2022, 15h-16h30
7-year-olds and up with an adult
Kids workshops: “Résister par le mouvement”
In partnership with the AVDC – Association vaudoise de danse contemporaine – in as part of the Fête de la Dance. With Natacha Garcin, dancer, and Dragos Tara, double bass player.
Saturdays 12 March, 9 April, 14 May 2022, 14h-17h
9 to 15 years old
Price: CHF 15.–
“Animation de croquis sur tablette”
Tuesday 26, Wednesday 27, Thursday 28, and Friday 29 April 2022, 13h30-17h
Part of PâKOMUZé
www.pakomuze.ch
9 to 15 years old
Price: CHF 15.–
