Love, Work, Exist : Artists and Communities Post-1968
James Lee Byars, Judy Chicago, Lygia Clark, Jörg lmmendorff, Gordon Matta-Clark, Nicola L., Lygia Pape

Exhibition from 9 June to 12 September 2004
Mamco - Musée d'art moderne et contemporain, Geneva
Curator : Yves Aupetitallot

This exhibition borrows its title from Jörg lmmendorff's Lidl works ("Hier dürfen wir lieben, hier dürfen wir arbeiten, hier dürfen wir liegen") and brings together some fifty works and documents from artists, collectors, museums and institutions.
At the end of the 1960s and in the early 1970s, many artists shifted from an ideological and dialectical vision of society to a focus on its micro-communities by experimenting with collective spaces for thought and work, moments of shared conviviality, the participative mode.

Jörg lmmendorff (1945, Bleckede, lives in Düsseldorf) had created at its beginnings at the Kunstakademie in Düsselfdorf the concept/organization Lidl (this German word describes the sound of a baby rattle - a means of communication before language can be employed). All kinds of activities developed within the bounds of Lidl: Lidl space, Lidl academy, Lidl sport, Lidl theatre. Works, photographs and documents introduce Lidl's main preoccupations.
Lygia Clark (1920, Belo Horizonte - 1988, Copacabana), artist turned psychoanalyst, developed a series of performances as part of a process that she called "Man, the living structure of a biological and cellular architecture." "The environment", she argued, "exists only insofar as there is this collective expression. It is created by the actions of the paticipants." Objects and documents such as Biological Architectures (1968-69), Anthropophagica/ dribble (1973) or Relaxation (1974-75) are presented.

The Moon Landing Breakfast in Antwerp in 1969 was also the occasion for an artistic community to gather for a meal, to celebrate the singular event of landing on the moon. Inhabitants of the neighbourhood and Antwerp's artist community, dominated by the "Espace A" and its artistic director, Kasper Konig, participated.
The film Salto arte (1975), made at Isi Fiszman's initiative and projected here for the first time, unites artists like Panamarenko, Boltanski, Filliou, Beuys and others under a circus tent and evokes the solidarity of Northern Europe's artistic scene.

In New York's SoHo district, Gordon Matta-Clark (1943, New York - 1978), opens the restaurant "Food", which becomes the meeting place of the art world between 1970 and 1973. This exhibition presents photographs and films of Food, and the related magazine Avalanche.
The idea of sharing, linked to the concept of the meal, can also be found in the artwork The Dinner Party. It consists of a giant, triangular table laid with 39 plates, each one dedicated to a famous woman. It stands on a triangular floor, itself covered with the names of 999 famous women, from antiquity onwards. Feminist artist Judy Chicago (1939, Chicago, lives in new Mexico) started to work on The Dinner Party in 1974 and showed it for the first time in San Francisco in 1979. The work itself was produced with the help of a women's collective. A video and preparatory works are on view.

Collective clothing is another micro-communal form taken up in post-1968. James Lee Byars (1932, Detroit - 1997, Cairo), conceived for the Wide White Space gallery in Antwerp a performance/room comprising a piece of red material cut out into the shape of an aeroplane. Visitors were encouraged to put their heads through the holes cut out for that purpose and to move round together in the gallery space and in the town.
The presentation of the collective coat Same Skin For Everybody (1968-69) by Nicola L. (born in France, lives in New York) is another example. The performance during the opening with The Blue Cape (2002) for 12 participants will allow those present to see one of these collective clothes in use.
The exhibition also presents Divisor (1968) by Brazilian artist Lygia Pape (1929, Nova Friburgo - 2004, Rio de Janeiro), with photographs showing its early use.

MAGASIN - Centre National d'Art Contemporain de Grenoble curated this exhibition and was invited to show it in the mamco as its building is waiting to be renovated.