« GRENOBLE : LE MAGASIN »
Contemporary, London, February 2006, p. 25
While public institutions dedicated to contemporary art in Paris are two a penny; outside of the capital the pickings are a bit slim. While the MAC/VAL Museum of Contemporary Art, Val de Marne) opened its doors last November, nudging contemporary art out of the city centre with its location in a southern suburb, contemporary art seems, at least as far as state institutions are concerned, to still be a strictly Parisian affair. But the reopening of Le Magasin in Grenoble on 21 January looks set to challenge this. Installed on a former industrial site, Le Magasin, French for warehouse), has been exhibiting contemporary art for the last 20 years, but since renovations began in 2004 it has relocated to a temporary space across the road.
The new Magasin will open with two exhibitions: Michael Craig Martin's Climate Change (2006), a 770m2 mural that will transform the central space 'La Rue' (a long linear space with a glass roof) with immense digital drawings of everyday objects, and Cinemas', an exhibition of artworks, films and documents from prominent artists such as Ange Leccia, younger figures such as Bernard Joisten and Christelle Lheureux, and the great auteur himself, Jean-Luc Godard. While the works displayed will probe the world of film and all its modus operandi, perhaps the most interesting aspect (especially when compared to the vast international focus of so many exhibitions) is the stipulation that the work in 'Cinemas' must have a connection to Grenoble and the surrounding region. Central to the concept of the centre is a close collaboration with artists and, where possible, the production of new works for the space. Yves Aupetitallot, the director of Le Magasin, hopes that the new centre will 'stay as close as possible to the art of the moment', and that the space will continue to act as an 'enlarged artist's studio', which was the main aim with its conception in the 1980s. With exhibitions in the past by international artists such as Vito Acconci, Thomas Ruff, llya Kabakov and Jason Rhoades, the future for Le Magasin looks auspicious. Perhaps French billionaire Francois Pinault should take heed. As his plans to develop the Ile Seguin in Paris floundered in bureaucracy, he should realise that there is no need to stay quite as far away as Venice to open a museum for his contemporary art collection.
(I.S.)