Golden Room
Palais des Beaux-Arts, Lille
Curated by Jérôme Sans, Jean-Max Colard, with the collaboration of Isabelle Bernini
27.04 — 02.09.19
Palais des Beaux-Arts, Lille.
Lille3000
:mentalKLINIK, Olga De Almaral, Mircea Cantor, Kendell Geers, Laurent Grasso, Thomas Lelu
The Golden Room, a treasure chamber or Ali Baba’s cavern? It’s the mythical place sought by all the gold seekers, by all the Eldorados. A marvelous space, monochromatic, where everything is gold, floor to ceiling, with a shimmery heap of golden objects, in an anachronistic blend of all eras and of all civilizations, on through the most contemporary.
On the occasion of the new cultural season of Lille3000 entitled Eldorado, the guest curators, Jean-Max Colard and Jérôme Sans, proposed to several artists to invest the "underground" galleries of the Palais des Beaux-Arts in Lille where the permanent collections of the museum, from the Antiquity, the Middle Ages and the Renaissance are housed and displayed. Like a treasure hunt without rules and order, the artists develop the possible chapters of a history as universal as it is tumultuous, in which their work echoes the collections set with gold. A metaphor for a desire for power, the quest for the treasure here takes the form of a rite of passage, but also of a reversal of values.
What if this Golden Room is never more than a cave for thieves and pillagers? Behind the gold leaf, this accumulation of objects where real gold is mixed with junk and cheap fakes could appear to us as an economic miracle. Like a gigantic still life where everything is but vanity. Like the vestiges and ready ruins of many civilizations which lost themselves in the frenzied search for prosperity.
Exhibition view: Golden Room, 2019, Eldorado © mentalKLINIK
:mentalKLINIK, AMAZE-CROSS, Verre coloré réfléchissant soufflé à la main. 208 x 142 x 19 cm. Golden Room, Eldorado, lille3000Palais des Beaux-Arts, Lille, France, 2019 © photo: Florian Kleinefenn
Kendell Geers, Masking Tradition, 2019. Acrylic on canvas. Courtesy de l’artiste. Golden Room, Eldorado, lille3000Palais des Beaux-Arts, Lille, France, 2019 © photo: Florian Kleinefenn
Kendell Geers, PrayPlayPreyPay, 2011. Bronze, handcuffs, 16 x 43 x 43 cm. Courtesy of the artist. Golden Room, Eldorado, lille3000Palais des Beaux-Arts, Lille, France, 2019 © photo: Florian Kleinefenn
Kendell Geers, T.W BATONS (Spiral), 1994. Matraques de police, 195 x 195 cm. Courtesy de l’artiste. Golden Room, Eldorado, lille3000Palais des Beaux-Arts, Lille, France, 2019 © photo: Florian Kleinefenn
Laurent Grasso, Studies into the Past, Huile et feuille d’or sur bois, 65 x 42 x 4 cm / 65 x 134 x 4 cm. Golden Room, Eldorado, lille3000Palais des Beaux-Arts, Lille, France, 2019 © photo: Florian Kleinefenn
Exhibition view: Golden Room, 2019, Eldorado © mentalKLINIK
:mentalKLINIK, CHROMATIC MADNESS 1803/1804, 2018. Papier coton, film polyester multi-couches solaire et dichroïque. Golden Room, Eldorado, lille3000Palais des Beaux-Arts, Lille, France, 2019 © photo: Florian Kleinefenn
Installation view of mentalKLINIK’s works, exhibition : Golden Room, 2019, Eldorado © mentalKLINIK
:mentalKLINIK, MOËT, 1801; 1802, 2016. Laiton poli ; SLIDER, 1803 ; SLIDER, 1804, 2018. Glass, micro-layered polyester films, anodized aluminium. Golden Room, Eldorado, lille3000Palais des Beaux-Arts, Lille, France, 2019 © photo: Florian Kleinefenn
Mircea Cantor, Heaven and Hell Simultaneously, 2016. Couverture de survie. Dimensions variables ; Epic Fountain, 2012, épingles à nourrices en or 24 carat, 314 x 21 cm. Courtesy de l’artiste. Golden Room, Eldorado, lille3000Palais des Beaux-Arts, Lille, France, 2019 © photo: Florian Kleinefenn
Olga de Amaral, Estela 34, 35, 38, 39, 40, 45, 49, 2007. Lin, gesso, acrylique, feuille d’or. Dimensions variables. Courtesy Galerie Valérie Bach, Bruxelles. Golden Room, Eldorado, lille3000Palais des Beaux-Arts, Lille, France, 2019 © photo: Florian Kleinefenn
Thomas Lélu, In Gold We Trust, 2019. Gold Save The Queen. Panneau en bois laqué, laque automobile et spray, 195 x 130 cm. Courtesy de l’artiste. Golden Room, Eldorado, lille3000Palais des Beaux-Arts, Lille, France, 2019 © photo: Florian Kleinefenn