February 3 — June 27, 2021
0+
Level 2
At Level 2 of the Arsenal you will see more than a hundred works by an artist who for many a year has been a photo reporter and a fashion photographer meanwhile studying this vital phenomenon of contemporary culture, the museum.
How does a person find their bearings in a museum where in addition to regular guides are now audio guides, QR codes, and smartphone interactive apps? Do these new technologies not disrupt the personal contact (the most important thing) of the viewer with a piece of art? Marcel Duchamp in 1917 made a conceptual gesture putting in a New York museum a bottle rack and the famous urinal to strike the importance of the museum context for perception of art which would be dead without its viewer. Whatever meaning anyone of us finds in a work of art is dictated by their cultural baggage and possibilities for realization of their experience at the given moment.
Gérard Uféras acts as an artist, anthropologist, and sociologist in this project. The research he is undertaking is not just a witty tale of viewers from museums of all kinds. It will give you an opportunity to see yourself from aside and think about your own attitude to art.
The exhibition by Gérard Uféras is about relationships. A relationship between the viewers and the museum, viewers and arts, viewers and a viewer. In 2020–2021 the exhibition A Day in the Museum acquires a new meaning and becomes especially topical. The photographs take us on a virtual trip around the chief museums of the world to feel and see their presence and atmosphere where we greatly hope to find ourselves on the other side of the shot in the nearest future.
Anna Bolshem
Head expert of the Exhibition Projects Department at the Arsenal
Information
Gérard Uféras is an artist who for many a year has been a photojournalist and a fashion photographer, and now is a winner of some prestigious international prizes including Prix Villa Médicis hors les murs (1990), BP Arts Journalism Awards (1991), World Press Photo (1997), SCAM (1999), Digigraphie Awards (2007), Top Fedrigoni Award (2013), and some others.
Exhibitions by M. Uféras were held in many a museum and gallery around the world, such as the Musée de l’Elysée in Lausanne, and Maison Européenne de la Photographie in Paris. His works are found in the collections of the Maison Européenne de la Photographie (Paris), Fonds national d’art contemporain (Paris), the National Gallery (London), Bibliothèque nationale de France, Multimedia Art Museum (Moscow), etc.
Strategic sponsor of the project Ahmad Tea (SDS-Foods LLC)
