A proposition by Gilles A. Tiberghien
Curator: Gilles A. Tiberghien
Su-Mei Tse
Dong, Xi, Nan, Bei, 2006
Collection 49 Nord 6 Est - FRAC Lorraine
Conceived by the philosopher and essayist Gilles A. Tiberghien, who signs at the CRAC Alsace his first curating project, the exhibition, For A Republic Of Dreams gathers more than fifty pieces of art. Together, they draw the limits of the real world in order to widen it on territories of our imaginary.
From collections of regional founds of contemporary art of the eastern regions of France, the works exhibited, historical or recent, maps, photographs, videos, sculptures, installations, have for a common theme travels, exploration of spaces either remote or very close, displacement, walks, discovery of the landscape.
The Republic of dreams refers to an eponymous novel from Bruno Schulz published in The Cinnamon Shops. Like the children of the novel, the artists suggest works that are: « characterised by poesy and adventure ». And like the hero, « director’s chair of landscapes and cosmic sceneries, their art consists in catching the intentions of nature, in reading through its secret aspirations ». The exhibition forms thus a path that lays down the first steps of a republic of dreams and invites visitors to be the first surveyors.
The exhibition is accompanied by a catalogue edited at Les Presses du Réel Publishing. This book resumes all the works and organises them around unpublished extracts of Gilles A. Tiberghien’s travelbooks and texts from poets (Pierre Alferi, Emmanuel Hocquard, Jean-Christophe Bailly, etc). The whole is preceded by a detailed introduction by the author.