Listening to the Lines

Title: Listening to the Lines
Date: 24 April (Friday) – 5 July (Sunday), 2015
 

Le Forum will hold a group exhibition “Listening to the Lines” introducing works which embark us to explore a simple “line”. It introduces works that focus on lines found in nature, the source of our imagination, and on the place where lines are born.

This is held in concert with the exhibition “Simple Forms: Contemplating Beauty” (25 April to 5 July, 2015, Organizers: Mori Art Museum, Centre Pompidou-Metz, Special Organizer: Fondation d’entreprise Hermès) at Mori Art Museum, Tokyo.

Expression through “line” and “form” are both equally important themes in art. As much as forms, line has been carefully observed in the formative arts, as seen in drawings, calligraphy, and abstract paintings. A great many works that relate to the subject continue to be created.
Even in fields outside of art, such as analytical diagrams, maps, musical scores, and typography, lines are a widely used method of communication within our culture. In the grand cultural history surrounding the line, we hope this exhibition will create a space for the visitors to listen to the subtle voice of the lines and experience the scenery that they lead to.

Exhibiting Artists (Alphabetical Order):
Atelier Bow-Wow, Xu Bing, Roger Caillois, Carsten Nicolai, Akiko & Masako Takada, Ignacio Uriarte, Asako Tokitsu, Niele Troni

Everywhere there are stones that have left their own signature, and they invite the spirit to search for the echoes of other signs. I stand before these signs: I observe, I describe.
A play begins, that is both inventing and knowing.* –Roger Caillois

Lines Found in Nature
In their own unique ways, artists and philosophers find lines within nature; our source of inspiration.
The French philosopher Roger Caillois, known for his book L’écriture des pierres (The Writing of Stones), collected curious objects. Among them is a collection of stones which is filled with rare beauty, archived in the National Museum of Natural History in France. In Obliques précédé image, images…, Caillois, a pioneer in interdisciplinary thinking, writes about the landscape created by universal beauty, a beauty found in all nature which transcends human knowledge. In this exhibition, we will explore about 60 objects where imaginary figures outlined by mysterious lines are visible on the polished surfaces of some stones, mainly agates, a selection from around the 200 pieces of Caillois’ collection within the collections of the National Museum of Natural History.
In the history of Eastern art, where nature has often been the motif for paintings, shan shui (landscape) scroll painting developed in China, later extending to Japan. Xu Bing’s Background Story, created almost like a trompe l’oeil, introduces us to a landscape drawn with natural materials.
Carsten Nicolai, both a musician and an artist, is known for his work inspired by the principles of natural science and its underlying structure, and work associated with our perception and cognition. His research on grid patterns created by mathematical formulas and the moiré phenomenon resulting from the displaced lines and dots were published as visual dictionaries, envisioned as an open-source platform for people to freely access his research.

Lines Drawn in the Everyday Life
Lines are also created in our everyday life, in the homes and office space where we spend most of our time in. The expression weaved through the personal and intimate time or the lightness of a quick memo is an accumulation of lines our hands create within our everyday space.
The Japanese twin sisters Akiko & Masako Takada create a startling landscape by manipulating our sense of scale. Their work brings in a feeling of uncertainty into our familiars, such as magazines, playing cards, maps and gardens, and invites us into their small universe. Ignacio Uriarte is an artist with a previous career as an office worker. His work, simple and minimal, begins from the small actions which take place within an office environment, and distinctively uses common office supplies such as A4 size paper, BIC pens and rubber bands.

The Incomplete Line, the Starting Point
In a two-dimensional expression, a point is the beginning of a line, and therefore a starting point of all. Niele Toroni is an artist who, in the context of Western art history, continues to follow his own unique method of painting. Since 1966, he continues to employ a practice which he calls “Travail-Peinture” which utilizes a no.50 paintbrush and draws only the first stroke at a regular 30cm interval.

Connecting Lines / Diffusing Lines
Berlin-based artist Asako Tokitsu has consistently been working with lines in her creative practice for over 25 years. Her work unfolds freely not only in art museums and galleries, but also in homes, and bears an impulse to take off beyond the confined space. These drawings are drawn like a sculpture, interpreting the space as they are drawn, and endlessly expand like an organic entity with its own life.
This exhibition will also include a small library to explore the different expression related to lines. The library Manga Pod, made by the Japanese architect duo Atelier Bow-Wow, freely changes its form, creating a lineal expression or a closed shell-like space by altering its grid structure. In this exhibition, the library itself, Manga Pod Hermès edition will stand as a symbolic platform for the creation of free forms and thoughts.

* Translated from Roger Caillois, 石が書く(The Writing of Stones), transl. by Koji Okaya, Tokyo: Shinchosha, 1975.

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