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Hicham Berrada

Francisco Tropa STAE (Submerged Treasures of Ancient Egypt)

Reto PulferDie Kammerndes Zustands

cur. Sandra Patron

cur. Dorothée Dupuis and Oliver Martínez-Kandt

cur. Roven Platform

Mariana Castillo Deball Cronotopo

Musée régional d’art contemporain Languedoc-Roussillon146 avenue de la plage BP4, 34 410 Sérignan, Francemrac.languedocroussillon.frmuseedartcontemporain@cr-languedocroussillon.fr+33 4 67 32 33 05

Press contact: Brunswick Arts → Amy de Leusse / Leslie Compancr-languedocroussillon@brunswickgroup.com+33 1 70 69 04 52Sylvie Caumet, caumet.sylvie@cr-languedocroussillon.fr +33 4 67 74 96 79 / +33 6 80 65 59 67

Saturday, 27th June, 2015

at 11am: press visitfrom 6.30pm: opening

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Francisco TropaTSAE (Submerged Treasures of Ancient Egypt)Curator: Sandra Patron

Archaic instruments for measuring time, medieval representations of the cosmos, bronze giants and trompe-l’œil compositions: there is a distinct feeling looking at Francisco Tropa’s work of witnessing the creation of an autonomous world, the development of an original and personal mythology, where numerous representations of the world are vaguely recognised, from ancient Greece to modernist ideals. Tropa’s interest in these conventional models is philosophical as well as aesthetical. Philosophical because these systems question the overlapping of truth and fiction in our representations, and the way in which, since the dawn of time, man has distorted scientific truths for the benefit of a collective, whether political or religious, narrative. Aesthetical, because these frequently abstract representations of the world are an inexhaustible source for the artist, enabling formal whims of every kind, in an exhilarating relationship with matter and the different ways in which it can be transformed.

TSAE (Submerged Treasures of Ancient Egypt) reflect all of these concerns. Unveiled during an exhibition at the La Verrière in Brussels and expanded upon for the Mrac with a mysterious Ministry of Foreign Affairs, TSAE is a fictional archaeological expedition whose title spontaneously conjures up an exhibition drawing crowds in search of sarcophagi and other mummies. The title is key to propelling the spectator’s imagination towards an exoticism, to then be taken aback encountering productions with undeniable formal beauty and magic but that defy understanding, leaving it open to interpretation. At the exhibition at La Verrière in Brussels, many enigmatic “chambers” (Partie Submergée, Chambre violée, Terra Platònica) presented the vestiges of findings by the team of scien-tists, a collection of objects the use of which was not apparent. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs is exhibited at the Mrac. This subsection draws the TSAE cycle to a close. This secret part mysteriously surfaces causing us to reconsider the overall project as a mech-anism built to eliminate the confines of time and space, the exposure of which would disclose the function.

Like the first version in Brussels, the exhibition is compartmentalised into several chap-ters. At the centre, a cube and two spheres are presented floating in space and gravitat-ing to one another in Le songe de Scipion (Scipion’s Dream). The title refers explicitly to an allegory in De Republica by Cicero in which the cosmic organisation of the world is revealed by the dream.

A landscape unfolds on a play mat on the ground, formed of natural elements and an accurate bronze replica. Like all the pieces by the artist linked with still life, this land-scape is called Scripta, that etymologically means a task without depth or relief and is at the origin of the word write, but also at the origin of dice and therefore games of luck. Although there are strong links uniting Francisco Tropa’s practice with work by Marcel Duchamp, this reoccurring game enables the artist to pursue his reflection about sculp-ture. This is considered an unlimited range of possibilities, equally regarding matter and its various alterations but also how it engages with performance, as suggested by the piece Quad at the entrance to the exhibition.

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On either side of these central components, a series of sculptures forms Les Antipodes (The Antipodes) identifying the artist’s fascination for elements that are a priori diametri-cally opposed, but united by some hidden relationship. This opposition operates by a change of material or more metaphorically by a change of state or viewpoint. This logic is thwarted by the presence of L’influence américaine [The American Influence], a minimal-ist cube with a TV inside that is showing an ethnographic film from the 1960s where we discover an Indian chief who is building a box with remarkable ingenuity. The minimalist act, evidence of a powerfully confident West, is threatened with irony here by the artist, the figures from the ancient world surviving those of the new world reversing its chrono-logical order.

Lastly, two glass drops appear to have come straight out of a cave. The image of this grotto is obtained by the light that travels through strips of agate arranged in the pro-jector. These two “wells,” one negative, the other positive, one like a hole that perfo-rates the ground, the other like a montage being built, evoke the hell and the purgatory described by Dante in The Divine Comedy but are not dissimilar to a more modern psy-choanalytical conception about the functioning of the psyche, from the conscious to the unconscious.

Through these multiple references that range from Plato’s cave to American minimal-ism, Francisco Tropa well and truly invites us to the construction of an autonomous and fascinating world, a world of rugged beauty that unfolds like an ever-expanding architec-ture. Moreover it is more than likely that these various representations reflect Francisco Tropa’s perception of art in many ways: the question of truth partially suspended to the benefit of a multiplying and digressive narrative, enabling a world to emerge that is simul-taneously unique, fanciful and nonetheless credible.

Francisco Tropa was born in 1968 in Portugal. He lives and works in Lisbon. His first solo exhibition took place in 1991. He has since exhibited in France, in Paris (Galerie Jocelyn Wolff, Palais de Tokyo…), in Pougues-les-Eaux (Parc Saint Léger), in Portugal in Lisbon (Museu de Lisboa, Fundação Leal Rios, Appleton Square, Culturgest Lisbon), in Porto (Auditório do Museu de Arte Contemporânea de Serralves, Galeria Quadrado Azul), in Belgium in Brussels (Beursschouwburg, Hermès Foundation, La Verrière), in Italy in Venice (Palazzo da Ponte di calle del Dose and Palazzo Strozzi), in Rome (Roma Contemporary), in Spain in Madrid (Galería Distrito Quatro, Matadero, Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofia), in Luxembourg (MUDAM) and in Germany in Berlin (Gregor Podar Gallery). He represented Portugal at the Venice Biennial in Italy (2011), he also participated in the Istanbul Biennial in Turkey (2011), in Manifesta 3 in Ljubljana in Slovenia (2000), in the Melbourne Biennial in Australia (1999) and the São Paulo Biennial in Brazil (1998). Galerie Jocelyn Wolff, Paris represents him.

Francisco Tropa is artist-in-residence at the Atelier Calder from March to May 2015. He receives assistance from the Centre national des Arts Plastiques (Cnap) to pursue artistic research. The Atelier Calder is supported by the Ministry of Culture Drac Centre, the Centre region, the Cnap and the Calder Foundation.

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1 & 2. Francisco Tropa, TSAE (Tesouros Submersos do Antigo Egipto). Shots of the exhibition at La Verrière, Fondation d’entreprise Hermès, Bruxelles. Photo : Fabien de Cugnac.

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3, … 8. Francisco Tropa, TSAE (Tesouros Submersos do Antigo Egipto). Shots of the exhibition at Pavilhão Branco – Museu de Lisboa. Photo : Pedro Tropa.

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Mariana Castillo DeballCronotopoCurators: Dorothée Dupuis and Oliver Martínez-Kandt

In her practice, Castillo Deball links conceptual traditions in art with archeology, history and ethnography to create installation, sculpture, photography, video and drawing that analyze the production of formal and linguistic vocabularies involved in object making, and how they have the ability to expose larger historical and social narratives. Her inves-tigations seek to question and formulate the power struggles and negotiations inherent to all production processes, notably paying attention to specific post-colonial contexts where different cultures confront for access to representation and therefore, agency. Engaging in prolonged periods of research and field-work, she references both modern and contemporary archaeological and ethnographic methods in a playful way, narrating and deciphering the approximations, mistakes and contradictions that the idea of study-ing material cultures as fixed entities entails. Interested in the temporality of knowledge, Castillo Deball combines the exploration of archives and other information systems with the aesthetic vibrancy of cultural bricolage, appropriation and forgeries within encoded histories as well as the performative aspect of identity. Her research involves open col-laboration with different cultural producers, whether they be writers, crafts specialists, artists or institutional representatives through a voluntarily versatile network, aiming to expose the fluctuating political implications of their activities and visions. Challenging our assumptions of concepts such as authenticity and origin, she affirms the human capac-ity to crossbreed and cannibalize cleverly other cultures in order to survive as a universal and liberating characteristic of mankind.

For Cronotopo, the artist presents a combination of recent and newly commissioned art-works that reveal her working process as an evolving one. At the Mrac will be presented two majors works specifically produced for and adapted to the temporary exhibition spaces located on the first floor of the Museum. Nuremberg Map of Tenochtitlan (2013) is a monumental work covering the entire floor of one of the rooms. Made of simple wooden planks engraved and assembled so as to form a gigantic drawing, it reproduces a map, the first and the most widespread image that Europeans had of Tenochtitlán, and remains one of the few maps we have of the pre-colonial Aztec empire. In 1521, a letter and a map arrived in Spain for the Spanish king. This was the second of five letters that the conquistador Hernán Cortés sent describing the Aztec capital Tenochtitlán, which he and his crew had discovered and were near to conquering. The map, drawn by an Indigenous tlacuilo, was a detailed illustration of the city, reflecting the conquistador’s view of Tenochtitlán as an enchanted metropolis: a jewel rising up from the center of an azure lake, housing an ordered, wealthy civilization, who were nevertheless misled in their predilection for heathen ritual sacrifice instead of enlightened Christianity. This depiction of Tenochtitlán served to justify the expensive Spanish colonial efforts, but not only to Charles V, the king of Spain. The publication in Nuremberg of the map in 1524, along with the letter’s translation into Latin, also sparked the imagination and support of a large European audience.

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The wooden surface is also used as a matrix from which a one-to-one print of the engraved surface is made onto paper. The work Atlas (2014) is then a bound compila-tion of these prints, giving to see the map and its various narratives from a fragmentary perspective.

The two photographs from the series Umriss (2014), show two colorful, uncanny large scale blow-ups of mexican masks seen from behind. These photos were inspired to Castillo Deball by a Mexican commercial for antidepressant from the 80s, that she restaged using masks from the ethnographic museum in Berlin: the artist thus underlines humorously, although quite dramatically, the sadness inherent to our post-colonial times.

Who will measure the space, who will tell me the time? (2015) is the second occurrence of a new body of work whose production started last January for a monographic show at the Museum of Contemporary Art of Oaxaca, Mexico. The artist worked in col-laboration, with local traditional ceramics workshop Taller Coatlicue (Familia Martinez Alarzón, Atzompa) and Innovando la tradición A.C, a series of ceramic elements drawing from existing archeological figures from the Prehispanic Art Museum Rufino Tamayo in Oaxaca, mixed with more contemporary patterns like gears, nuts or toys. These ele-ments are superposed in order to build columns, each functioning as a distinct sculp-tural narrative that attempts to develop two questions: “How do you tell the story of the universe in hundred years? How do you tell the story of the universe in one day?” The results, typical of Castillo Deball’s work, play off of the anachronistic confusion created by the forms that compose it, wherein the language of visual art updates and challenges the idea of tradition and identity that still presides over most craft productions, giving the possibility of expansion and mobility.

Castillo Deball sees contemporary art as an effective means of generating inclusive discussions about broader issues of representation and the actualization of the project of modernity, at a time when globalization seems almost fully achieved, and when local, tribal identities seem to fade ineluctably in front of the omnipresent figure of the Westernized global consumer. One of the main point of Castillo Deball’s work, is then to fight against the essentialization of identities, whether they be indigenous or anything else.

Mariana Castillo Deball (Mexico, 1975) lives and works between Mexico City and Berlin. Her recent exhibitions include: Museo de Arte Contemporáneo de Oaxaca; Hamburger Bahnhof-Museum für Gegenwart, as part of the Preis der Nationalgalerie für Junge Kunst 2014, Berlin; Kurimanzutto; Salomon R. Guggenheim, NY; 8th Berlin Biennial; CCA Glasgow Scotland / Chisenhale Gallery, London; TEOR / éTica, Costa Rica; Haus Konstruktiv, Zürich; dOCUMENTA 13, Kassel; 54th Venice Biennale; El Eco Experimental Museum; Wien Lukatsch, Berlin; Kölnischer Kunstverein; Kunst Halle Sankt Gallen; Manifesta 7, Italy; Museo de Arte Carrillo Gil, Mexico, among others.

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1. Mariana Castillo Deball, Vista de Ojos, kurimanzutto, Mexico City, 2014. Courtesy of the artist and kurimanzutto. Photo : Estudio Michel Zabé.

2. Mariana Castillo Deball, ¿Quién medirá el espacio, quién me dirá el momento ?, Museo de Arte Contemporáneo de Oaxaca, Mexico, 2015. Courtesy of the artist. Photo : Manuel Raeder.

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3. Mariana Castillo Deball, Parergon, Hamburger Bahnhof – Museum für Gegenwart, Berlin, 2014. Courtesy of the artist and Staatliche Museen zu Berlin. Photo : Thomas Bruns.

4. Mariana Castillo Deball, Uncomfortable Objects, dOCUMENTA (13), Fridericianum, Kassel, 2012. Courtesy of the artist. Photo : Roman März.

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Hicham BerradaHicham Berrada’s work, a combination of intuition and knowledge, science and poetry, is fuelled by a double culture of art and science. The artist highlights the changes and met-amorphoses of a chemically activated ‘nature’ that he manipulates directly to give shape to real still lifes. The artist explores scientific protocols in his work, from the laboratory to

the studio and from chemical experiments to performance, closely mimicking dif-ferent natural processes and/or weather conditions.

The video Présage [Omen], an example of true chemical theatre presented at the Mrac, is the fruit of a performance in which the artist, combining different chemical products in a beaker, causes a chimeric world to emerge. These trans-formations of matter, set in motion by his manipulations, are filmed and projected simultaneously onto the screen, immers-ing the audience into a world of fascinat-ing forms and colours. These experiments

give rise to reduced models of living organisms that are then set in resin, thus becoming real still lifes. These ephemeral landscapes are conceived by the artist like real pictorial creations and immerse the audience into a world that is in a constant state of meta-morphosis. Far from being a mere formal artifice, his work thus transports visitors to an elsewhere, a world that is both living and inanimate, that invites us to experience unprec-edented energies and forces emanating from the matter. As he himself describes it, ‘I try to control the phenomena that I mobilise like an artist masters his pigments and brushes. My brushes and pigments would be the heat, the cold, the magnetism and the light.’

Born in Casablanca (Morocco) in 1986, Hicham Berrada lives and works in Paris. After graduating from the École nationale supérieure des Beaux-arts in Paris in 2011, he pursued his training at the Studio national des arts contemporains Le Fresnoy, then became resident of the Villa Médicis in Rome in 2013. He participates in many events and exhibitions: the Mac/Val; the Vasarely Foundation; the Palais de Tokyo, Paris; Le Fresnoy, Studio National des Arts Contemporain; the CCC in Tours; the PS1, New York. His work has been exhibited during performances at the MAXXI, in Rome, at Les Abattoirs in Toulouse, as well as during Nuit Blanche, in Paris and in Melbourne. From 11th April to 27th June, L’Onde art centre in Vélizy-Villacoublay is devoting a solo exhibition to him. Galerie Kamel Mennour in Paris represents him.

Sources: Palais de Tokyo www.palaisdetokyo.com and www.lesabattoirs.org

1. Hicham Berrada, Mesk-ellil, 2015. Installation, set of 7 tinted glass terrariums, cestrum nocturnum, horticultural lighting, moonlight lighting, timer. View of the exhibition Paysages a circadiens, Kamel Mennour, Paris, 2015. © Hicham Berrada. © Photo: Fabrice Seixas. Courtesy of the artist and Kamel Mennour, Paris.

2. Hicham Berrada, Présage, 2007-2015. High resolution colour digital photography. Lambda Becher prints, chemical products, camera and live projection. © Hicham Berrada. Courtesy of the artist and Kamel Mennour, Paris.

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Reto PulferDie Kammern des ZustandsCurator: Roven Platform (Johana Carrier, Joana Neves, Marine Pagès, Diogo Pimentão)

In response to the challenge ‘to take over’ the graphic arts room, the Roven Platform suggested a two-part presentation of artworks around the title Rituels, répétitions, con-traintes, tentations (Rituals, Repetitions, Constraints and Temptations). The first part was a group exhibition uniting Ignasi Aballí, Irma Blank, Frédéric Bruly Bouabré, Pierre Buraglio, Claude Cattelain, Hanne Darboven, tantric drawings, Marcel van Eeden, Otelo Fabião, Carla Filipe, Henri Jacobs, Julije Knifer, Wolfgang Laib, Alexandre Leger, Alison Moffett, Caroline Muheim, Matt Mullican, Morgan O›Hara, João Onofre, Elisa Pône, Laure Prouvost, Reto Pulfer, Didier Rittener and Nil Yalter.

The second part called Die Kammern des Zustands [Chambers of States] is a proposal by the Swiss artist Reto Pulfer invited by the Roven Platform to stimulate this research into the rituals and celebrations which cause art and life to cross paths.

The artist has been involved in Die Kammern des Zustands, a constantly changing and pro-gressive creation, conceived as Kammern [chambers], since 2011. It is organised around specific Zustands [states]. According to the artist, ‘a Zustand is complete in itself, but it is only stable for a limited period.’

Reto Pulfer uses the existing architecture to set up his environments made of fabric, found objects sometimes and two-dimensional pieces that he has shaped or chosen for their colours, their use, their history and their ability to convey or support a state. A passage operates between the categories often separating practices like drawing, sculp-ture or painting, with an emphasis here on the notion of inscription, of marking a surface that can exist depending on the specific mental state.

Each ‘chamber’ becomes a place that the spectator inhabits, thus reversing the function of the graphic arts room: rather than placing relics in display cases and thus separat-ing them from the area where spectators freely circulate, the artwork is formed by the exhibition spaces and devices which spectators penetrate, in the course of the different states induced.

Until now, the artist has proposed different Kammern (chambers) honouring and activat-ing several psychological and physical states: raw energy and beginnings; community and language; unlimited expression. Other states will be represented and embodied at the Mrac in Sérignan.

Reto Pulfer was born in Bern in 1981. He lives and works in Berlin. His work has been included in many international exhibi-tions with solo exhibitions in several institutions including the Kunstverein Nürnberg, in Germany in 2013 and the ReMapKM, in Athens, Greece in 2011. He is preparing solo exhibitions in Spike Island, Bristol (UK), at the Centre d’Art Contemporain Genève (Switzerland) and at the Centre International de Paysage de Vassivère (France) this year.

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1. Reto Pulfer, Ausdrucksmoment im Blauen Zimmer, 2009-2011. Pastel on paper, textile, metal, mixed material, 380 × 330 × 250 cm. Die Kammern des Zustands, Fondazione Pastificio Cerere, Roma, 2011.

2. Reto Pulfer, Die Gruppenhöhle, 2011. Textile, wood, mixed materials, 380 × 335 × 270 cm. Die Kammern des Zustands, Fondazione Pastificio Cerere, Roma, 2011.

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Opening HoursOpen from Tuesday to Friday 10am-6pm and on weekends 1pm-6pm.Closed on public holidays.

Special opening hours from 12pm-8pm every day in July and August except Monday.

ToursGuided tours are included for everyone in the entrance fee: every Wednesday at 11am (except July and August), and every Saturday and Sunday at 3pm.

Additional tours at 6pm in July and August every day except Monday.

TeamDirector: Sandra Patron Administration: Séverine Freyssinier, freyssinier.severine@cr-languedocroussillon.fr Head of exhibitions: Clément Nouet, nouet.clement@cr-languedocroussillon.fr Head of the collection and documentation: Céline Ramade, ramade.celine@cr-languedocroussillon.fr Head of visitor services: Isabelle Durand, durand.isabelle@cr-languedocroussillon.frAnaïs Bonnel, bonnel.anais@cr-languedocroussillon.frCharlotte Branget, branget.charlotte@cr-languedocroussillon.fr Head of partnerships and public relations:Sylvie Caumet, caumet.sylvie@cr-languedocroussillon.fr Instructors in plastic arts responsible and official representatives for the Daac educational service: Alexandre Gilibert and Jérôme Vaspard

Graphic design: Huz & Bosshard

Entry: €5 standard rate/€3 reduced rate. Payment in cash or by cheque. Reduction: Groups of more than 10 persons, students, members of the Maison des Artistes, seniors who are holders of the minimum old age pension. Free: Upon presenta-tion of a proof; students and teachers of art and architecture, those under 18 years old, journalists, job seekers, social welfare recipi-ents, recipients of adult disabled allowance, members of Icom and Icomos, cultural staff, and staff from the Conseil régional Languedoc-Roussillon.

Access: By car on the A9, take the exit Béziers-centre or Béziers-ouest then follow Valras/Sérignan to the Centre adminis-tratif et culturel. Free Parking. By public transport, TER or TGV to Béziers. At the station, bus № 16, direction Valras to the Promenade bus-stop in Sérignan.

Musée régional d’art contemporain Languedoc-Roussillon146 avenue de la plage, Sérignan