Day For (Your) Night

Antoine de Galbert's video collection

Online exhibition from May 29 to August 31, 2020

Pilar Albarracin, Michel Blazy, Blue Noses, Maxim Borolinov and Roman Maskalev, Mohamed Bourouissa, Mircea Cantor, Patty Chang, Steven Cohen, Ann Hamilton, Elika Hedayat, Jean-Charles Hue, Sejla Kameric, Ange Leccia, Ramuntcho Matta, Tania Mouraud, Geert Mul, Hans Op de Beeck, Lucien Pelen, Pol Pierart, Louise Pressager, Mika Rottenberg, Roman Signer, Stéphane Thidet, Barthélémy Toguo, Janaina Tschäpe, Adam Vackar, Where Dogs Run

Mircea Cantor, Vertical Attempt, 2009

The 46 videos presented are taken from the collection of Antoine de Galbert, a collector of French art. As such, they embody the tastes and obsessions of an individual, who chose to share them by creating, in 2000, a foundation and an exhibition space: the Red House, which definitively closed its doors in 2018.

The prolific Antoine de Galbert collection shows his interest in vanities - a still life evoking the fragility and brevity of human existence. This interest is found in his videos, where performance, the staging of the artist’s body by himself, even the testing of the body, occupy a prominent place. In Chandelier (2002), a filmed performance by Steven Cohen (South African artist, performer and choreographer born in 1962), the artist wanders on high heels, wearing make-up and wearing a chandelier with pendants, in a dedicated Johannesburg township. to demolition. More sarcastic, Barthélémy Toguo (born in 1967 in Cameroon, lives in Paris and Bandjoun) stages himself in The Thirsty Gardener, (2005) watering a potted plant, made of banknotes. Burlesque minimalist, Roman Signer (Swiss artist born in 1938) shows himself, in Punkt (2006), sitting in front of an easel, brush in hand, jumping at the sound of a firecracker that he himself launched and thus producing the only trace making the picture ...

Everyone can discover the work of internationally renowned artists such as Mika Rottenberg (born in Argentina in 1976), present in the exhibition with Sneeze (2012), of emerging French artists such as Lucien Pelen (born in 1978 in Aubagne), whose SHED presents a set of videos striking with their sublime landscapes and their Beckettian poetry, or even Jean-Charles Hue, French filmmaker and plastic artist born in 1968, noticed for two of his feature films: La BM du Seigneur (2011 ) and Eat your dead: you will not say (Jean-Vigo Prize, 2014).

Julie Faitot

"Day for Night" was the third SHED exhibition in 2016, a brand new place for contemporary art. It was part of Normandy Impressionist programming around the portrait; we proposed the portrait of a collector (Antoine de Galbert) through part of his collection. As four years ago, the presentation of this video collection is this year offered as part of the festival.

In these particular times when the frequentation of art places is limited, when it is not impossible, the SHED, Center for Contemporary Art of Normandy and Antoine de Galbert wished to join again to organize an artistic event despite the closure of our spaces. These videos are available free of charge until August 31, 2020. A new selection of 4 to 5 films among the 46 of this online exhibition will appear every Friday, from May 29, 2020 until July 31, 2020. From July 31 as of August 31, 2020, the entire collection will be visible.

SHED warmly thanks Antoine de Galbert for his confidence and support.