In keeping with Susanna Fritscher's work on light for its reopening, the Musée d'arts presents a selection of works by American artist James Turrell. It becomes your experience invites the visitor to immerse into the heart of the immaterial and sensory work of this major artist of the international contemporary art scene, rarely presented in France.
The exhibition is organised around three groups of works, each reflecting a pivotal moment in James Turrell’s artistic practice: Projection Pieces (1966) with the two series of prints First Light (1989-1990) and Still Light (1990-1991); the immersive spaces Cherry (1998) and Awakening (2006); and lastly, drawings, aerial photography and models relating to Roden Crater.
In 1976, James Turrell began to create a new group of works entitled Space Division Constructions. The rooms which house these works are autonomous environments divided into two distinct sections: the “viewing space” which the spectator enters and the “sensing space” where the light is produced. The two spaces interact to create an unsettling and hypnotic sensation.
Cherry belongs to the Apertures series: a window resembling a frame has been cut out of the wall separating the two spaces.
In the room in which the viewer is positioned, two projectors light up the side walls and are adjusted so that their light does not enter the sensing space beyond the window. The sensing space, by contrast, is indirectly lit. The viewer can see an ambient light which fills the space and adds colour – red in this instance. Unlike the lighting in the viewing space, light is not used to define the physical boundaries of the space, but to create an illuminated sense of volume which the artist calls an “atmosphere”.
These works are designed in such a way that it is not so much the artist as the viewer who has the ability to bring the works to life: “it becomes your experience”.
Exhibition realized with the assistance of Almine Rech Gallery and Fundación Almine and Bernard Ruiz-Picasso para el Arte (FABA).
© Nantes Métropole - Musée d'arts de Nantes
