A day in Paris... RON MUECK
A remarkable exhibition at Fondation Cartier pour l'art contemporain, Paris
A Day in Paris… RON MUECK
The Fondation Cartier pour l’art contemporain is in Montparnasse, Paris (nearest metro Raspail on line 4.) Fondation Cartier pour l'art contemporain
Until 5 November the gallery is showing a remarkable exhibition of sculptures by the Australian artist Ron Mueck (b.1958). The glass-walled reception is filled with 100 white skulls piled high. The collective title Mass, 2017, leaves it open for the viewer to consider an interpretation. Walking around and through the ground floor layout of skulls was an unusual experience. It was fascinating to feel so small in comparison to the giant skulls, and not unpleasant, just an awareness of the framework of the human skull and times in past history when skulls piled up in this fashion related to real people, in war or famine, or – well, that is up to the viewer to decide. This is the first time this installation has been exhibited outside Australia. It was commissioned by the National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne, Australia. Mueck is quoted on this work:
‘The human skull is a complex object. A potent, graphic icon we recognise immediately. At once familiar and exotic, it repels and attracts simultaneously. It is impossible to ignore, demanding our attention at a subconscious level.’. (Fondation Cartier pour l’art contemporain, 2023.)
Ron Mueck worked for many years as a puppet maker, creating a diverse range of puppets. What is different about his work today is the human scale. He explains his concept:
‘I never made life-size figures because it never seemed to be interesting. We meet life-size people every day. [Altering the scale] makes you take notice in a way that you wouldn’t do with something that’s just normal. (Museum Voorlinden, the Netherlands)
At the Fondation Cartier the first installation to be seen is Mass, 2017. It links to Dead Weight, 2021, a singular, monumental skull, made from cast-iron. It weighs two tons and is placed outside the gallery window close to the gallery entrance, which links the internal and external gallery space and the two installations. This is its first public showing in France.
Included in the show are some of Mueck’s signature pieces. The wondrous giant, naked, newborn A Girl, 2006 (National Gallery of Modern Art, Edinburgh) modelled on Mueck’s newborn daughter. Once seen, this sculpture is never forgotten. The human form of the baby is so real and yet impossible to be real, due to the enormous size (110.5 x 501 x 134.5 cm). The baby, just delivered with umbilical cord still in place and traces of blood from the birth canal, opens one eye, to take a look at the world. Here too is Man in a Boat, 2002 (Private Collection) – a one-third scale of a naked man seated toward the prow of a four-metre long rowing boat.
A work in progress is This Little Piggy, 2023 (courtesy Thaddaeus Ropac) a table-top size sculpture, of a group of men flattening a large pig to the ground, in order to slaughter it. Mueck was inspired by a text in a John Berger novel describing this action in the lives of a rural community. The sculpture captures the reality of the act of killing but opens up to wider interpretations. In many smallholding agricultural communities, a piglet is bought in the Spring and raised on the farm, or in a barn, cared for and fed, then fattened and slaughtered in the Autumn, to make cured hams for the winter. The killing is usually done by the farmer with the help of family. The cycle begins again the following Spring.
The favourite installation for me is En Garde (Three Dogs), 2023, the latest work from Mueck, and a work in progress for ten years. This exhibition at the Fondation Cartier is its first showing to the public. The curator has placed the three ‘dogs’, at the end of the basement gallery. Going downstairs to the spotlit darkened space, suddenly one sees the dogs looking across, watching you in the shadowy light, staring out, ears, heads, bodies alert. It is dramatic. The size of the dogs, the tallest near three metres in height, makes them tower over the viewer. It is a fabulous experience. Mueck has captured the instinctive reaction of dogs, alone or in a pack, when faced with an unknown situation. The sculptures are made in mixed media and dark grey in colour. There is no fur, the realism is in their body stance and stares.
This exhibition in Paris ends on November 5, 2023. More contemporary art shows follow. The Fondation Cartier pour l’art contemporain is to be visited, it is such a cool place. The vast glass gallery at 261 Boulevard Raspail, 75014, built in 1984, is on the site of a former American Embassy building. The surrounding gardens were kept when the embassy was torn down and is still filled with trees indigenous to the USA. Walking through them to the rear of the gallery building you will find a low, grassed-over stone amphitheatre, a place to sit and rest, and take a drink from the permanent mobile coffee van. In Paris it is an oasis with an aura of calm, seamlessly matching the visual aesthetic of the Ron Mueck show.
Forthcoming Ron Mueck exhibitions are at:
Triennale Milano, Milan, Italy: December 2023-March 2024
Voorlinden Museum, the Netherlands: 29 June-17 November 2024.
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© Rosalind Ormiston October 29th, 2023