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A Barbarian in Paris

13.11.2018 - 22.12.2018

Fondation d’entreprise Ricard exhibition

With Eva Barto, Tatjana Danneberg, Virgile Fraisse, Signe Frederiksen, Guillaume Maraud, Anna-Stina Treumund, Viktor Timofeev, Evita Vasiljeva

Curated by Joachim Hamou, Maija Rudovska and Barbara Sirieix

A Barbarian in Paris is an exhibition and publication departing from the manifesto Active Art, written by Latvian collector, writer and doctor Andrejs Kurcijs in 1923. In the text Kurcijs identifies the importance of art and the artist in society but also defends the necessity of art to be activated within its own logic, to be independent.

A Barbarian in Paris borrows its title from another book of Kurcijs; a poetry collection reflecting on living in Paris in the hay-days of the early 1900. In the book Kurcijs speaks with the voice of the outsider stumbling with language and cultural codes. But this humbled position soon dissolves in the crosspollination of cultures that the city provides. Choosing Paris for the presentation of the project springs out of this special relation with the capital Andrejs Kurcijs and his contemporaries had.

Today art practitioners in France, Latvia and elsewhere try to reconnect with a political dimension without losing an artistic autonomy. The relevance of Kurcijs’ Active Art is thus renewed in this context.

The project is a collaboration between Kim? Contemporary Art Centre in Riga, Latvia, Paraguay Press and Fondation d’entreprise Ricard in Paris, France. Active Art is the framework for an exhibition that will open in November at Fondation d’entreprise Ricard in 2018 as well as a publication that will compile contributions from Latvian and French artists and writers, among others.