Robert Barry - FIAC - Art fairmfc-michèle didier | Paris - Brussels -
FIAC 2018
October 18-21, 2018
Paris, France
Booth 0.B58
Among the conceptual artists who work with the language, Robert Barry occupies an important place, at the age of visual art, poetry and philosophy. Conceptual art is - much more than a revolution of the visual forms of art - a fundamental rethink of the function of art and artists in a changing cultural context.
The ideas and works by Robert Barry make significant contribution to the definition of this new apprehension of art. For this reason we pay tribute to his work, bringing together for the first time all the works published by mfc-michèle didier.
The collaboration between Robert Barry and mfc-michèle didier begins in 2006 with Art Lovers. Published in 270 numbered copies and 30 artist's proofs, this singular work takes form in a box containing 72 unbounded plates on which are printed the black and white portrait of 72 "art lovers". These portraits, covered with a flat black layer, are partially visible and if we distinguish some fragments of mouth or nose, it is only due to the "breakthrough" of statements commonly used by the artist. The words Absurd, Imminent or Expect give us an insight but do not reveal. Any identification of these Art Lovers is tricky, if not impossible.
In One Billion Colored Dots, Robert Barry imagines 25 volumes, each with 40,000,000 dots, for a total of one billion colored dots. The work is printed in as many colors as volumes: each volume has its own color. A quantifiable accumulation and resolutely oriented toward the construction of meaning. Edited in 30 numbered and signed copies and 5 artist's proofs, this work is fascinating because of its rigor and its capacity to contain a "whole", which nevertheless exceeds us. Together with this publication, mfc-michèle didier published a digital and monochrome version entitled One Billion Dots, designed for projection edited as well in 30 numbered and signed copies and 5 artist?s proofs.
With Something in a Box, the content is a "something", gathered in the form of 62 cards placed in a walnut box. Each of these cards proposes a different statement, stated by the artist forty years ago. The first one introduces the 61 following: SOMETHING IN A BOX? and then 61 statements that are supposed to define SOMETHING, the essence of which remains irrevocably unknown. Published in 2014 with 24 numbered and signed copies and 6 artist proofs, this work of great poetry recalls from its invoice the importance of the role of the typewriter in the work of Robert Barry.
Following his own composition method established in 1969, Robert Barry proposes in 2016 with Somethings that..., a limited edition of 24 sets of 3 parts numbered and signed and 6 artist proofs on which appear 3 statements. The two first statements are common to all of the sets, however the third one is specific for each sets and in that way, is creating 24 original propositions. The statements from Somethings that? are unique in that they never conjure up an image. Although the combinations of words hold meaning and are grammatically correct, no visual transcription arises in the reader?s mind: the thought remains textual and evolves as such.
It is therefore up to the FIAC?s visitors to seize this enigmatic work like the four others presented on the booth mfc-michèle didier on the occasion of this new edition 2018, so that words, symbols and thoughts become the spaces of an individual projection, but nevertheless universal.
FIAC 2018
October 18-21, 2018
Paris, France
Booth 0.B58
Among the conceptual artists who work with the language, Robert Barry occupies an important place, at the age of visual art, poetry and philosophy. Conceptual art is - much more than a revolution of the visual forms of art - a fundamental rethink of the function of art and artists in a changing cultural context.
The ideas and works by Robert Barry make significant contribution to the definition of this new apprehension of art. For this reason we pay tribute to his work, bringing together for the first time all the works published by mfc-michèle didier.
The collaboration between Robert Barry and mfc-michèle didier begins in 2006 with Art Lovers. Published in 270 numbered copies and 30 artist's proofs, this singular work takes form in a box containing 72 unbounded plates on which are printed the black and white portrait of 72 "art lovers". These portraits, covered with a flat black layer, are partially visible and if we distinguish some fragments of mouth or nose, it is only due to the "breakthrough" of statements commonly used by the artist. The words Absurd, Imminent or Expect give us an insight but do not reveal. Any identification of these Art Lovers is tricky, if not impossible.
In One Billion Colored Dots, Robert Barry imagines 25 volumes, each with 40,000,000 dots, for a total of one billion colored dots. The work is printed in as many colors as volumes: each volume has its own color. A quantifiable accumulation and resolutely oriented toward the construction of meaning. Edited in 30 numbered and signed copies and 5 artist's proofs, this work is fascinating because of its rigor and its capacity to contain a "whole", which nevertheless exceeds us. Together with this publication, mfc-michèle didier published a digital and monochrome version entitled One Billion Dots, designed for projection edited as well in 30 numbered and signed copies and 5 artist?s proofs.
With Something in a Box, the content is a "something", gathered in the form of 62 cards placed in a walnut box. Each of these cards proposes a different statement, stated by the artist forty years ago. The first one introduces the 61 following: SOMETHING IN A BOX? and then 61 statements that are supposed to define SOMETHING, the essence of which remains irrevocably unknown. Published in 2014 with 24 numbered and signed copies and 6 artist proofs, this work of great poetry recalls from its invoice the importance of the role of the typewriter in the work of Robert Barry.
Following his own composition method established in 1969, Robert Barry proposes in 2016 with Somethings that..., a limited edition of 24 sets of 3 parts numbered and signed and 6 artist proofs on which appear 3 statements. The two first statements are common to all of the sets, however the third one is specific for each sets and in that way, is creating 24 original propositions. The statements from Somethings that? are unique in that they never conjure up an image. Although the combinations of words hold meaning and are grammatically correct, no visual transcription arises in the reader?s mind: the thought remains textual and evolves as such.
It is therefore up to the FIAC?s visitors to seize this enigmatic work like the four others presented on the booth mfc-michèle didier on the occasion of this new edition 2018, so that words, symbols and thoughts become the spaces of an individual projection, but nevertheless universal.
Exposed artworks
25 volumes, each 2008 pages
10.63 x 7.09 in ( 27,6 x 18,6 cm )
62 index cards in a walnut wooden box
6.69 x 4.72 x 1.57 in ( 17,4 x 12,4 x 4,9 cm )
Set of three sheets of paper in its portfolio
11.02 x 8.27 in ( 28 x 21,5 x 0,6 cm )
36 sheets in a slipcase
10.63 x 10.63 in ( 27,6 x 27,6 cm )