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Exhibitions at the New National Museum of Monaco
2010-12-17 22:04
What: Looking Up
When: 8 June 2010 - 20 April 2011
Where NMNM, Villa Sauber
Web: www.nmnm.mc
At long last the New National Museum of Monaco has opened. with two new spaces and three exhibitions which will appeal to all artists, photographers and car-lovers. The first big show is devoted to the work of Nigerian-born Yinka Shonibare.
For years the 'fourth plinth' in London's Trafalgar Square has lacked a statue, and the empty space has become the staging post for any number of innovative artworks and performance pieces. The latest sculpture to adorn it is a huge ship-in-a-bottle, a scale model of Nelson's HMS Victory, constructed by Nigerian-born British artist Yinka Shonibare.
A model for the Trafalgar Square piece is on show as part of Shonibare's opening exhibition at the newly-reconstructed Villa Sauber. ‘Looking Up’ - which runs till next January - is the first in an annual series of exhibitions in which contemporary artists take a fresh look at the Principality and its artistic heritage.
Taking as his starting point the theatrical and operatic heritage of Monaco - and possibly with a nod in the direction of Monte Carlo's fashion and jewellery houses - Shonibare has chosen to re-stage his already well-known headless mannequins.
Looking for all the world like shop dummies, these aristocratic forms are clothed in Dutch wax printed cotton and leather riding boots, then placed in positions which bring to the fore questions about European colonialism and its impact on African culture. In the most notorious example, each of two headless females points a loaded gun at the other.
Putting the exhibition in context will be a display of some of Monaco's greatest treasures, including architectural maquettes of Charles Garnier's Monte Carlo Opera (he also designed the Villa Sauber, incidentally), sculptures and etchings by the Bosio brothers, Eugène Frey's beautiful landscapes of the Monaco coast from the 1930s and any number of curiosities that would have graced the cabinets of gentlemen and ladies of the Enlightenment. A costume conservation workshop will run throughout the exhibition, demonstrating the latest conservation and restoration techniques.
Meanwhile the garage of the Villa Sauber is playing host to an extraordinary exhibit: a Ferrari 308 GTS 're-styled ' by Bertrand Lavier, who for forty years has been daubing everyday objects (including cars, crashed and uncrashed ) with heavy layers of paint in order to point up and transform our relationship with the modern world. The exhibition continues until at least the official opening on the NMNM on 8 June.
The Villa Paloma in the Exotic Gardens forms the second major hub of the new Museum. On 18 September 2010, the curtain will rise on its inaugural exhibition 'La Carte d'après Nature’, featuring the work of a selection of contemporary artists: Martin Boyce, Tacita Dean and Rodney Graham as well as the surrealist René Magritte - from whose art revue the exhibition takes its name - and Italian photographer Luigi Ghirri. The works have been specially selected by the noted German photographer Thomas Demand, Exploring the theme of art and territory, the exhibition continues until 22 February 2011