HERVÉFISCHER

COMMUNICATION AND PARTNERSHIPSDEPARTMENT

PRESS KIT

HERVÉ FISCHER AND SOCIOLOGICAL ART15 JUNE - 11 SEPTEMBER 2017

#ExpoFischer#conscienceaugmentee

HERVÉ FISCHERAND SOCIOLOGICAL ART15 JUNE - 11 SEPTEMBER 2017

communicationand partnerships department75191 Paris cedex 04

directorBenoît Parayretelephone00 33 (0)1 44 78 12 87emailbenoit.parayre@centrepompidou.fr

press officerTimothée Nicottelephone00 33 (0)1 44 78 45 79emailtimothee.nicot@centrepompidou.fr

www.centrepompidou.fr

CONTENTS

1. PRESS RELEASE PAGE 1

2. THE EXHIBITION : A THREE - SECTION CIRCUIT PAGE 2 - 4

3. SOCIOLOGICAL ART : CONVERSATION WITH SOPHIE DUPLAIX PAGE 5

4. A SHORT BIOGRAPHY PAGE 6

5. PUBLICATIONS PAGE 7

6. THE EXHIBITION CATALOGUE PAGE 8

7. IMAGES AVAILABLE FOR THE PRESS PAGE 9 - 12

8. PRACTICAL INFORMATION PAGE 13

communicationand partnerships department75191 Paris cedex 04

directorBenoît Parayretelephone00 33 (0)1 44 78 12 87emailbenoit.parayre@centrepompidou.fr

press officerTimothée Nicottelephone00 33 (0)1 44 78 45 79emailtimothee.nicot@centrepompidou.fr

www.centrepompidou.fr

#ExpoFischer#conscienceaugmentée

Hervé Fischer, Art - Avez-vous quelque chose à

déclarer ?, 1971. Enamelled metal

Centre Pompidou Collection, Paris

© Hervé Fischer © Centre Pompidou,

MNAM-CCI/Bertrand Prévost/Dist. RMN-GP

22 May 2017

PRESS RELEASEHERVÉ FISCHERAND SOCIOLOGICAL ART

15 JUNE - 11 SEPTEMBER 2017GALERIE DU MUSÉE, LEVEL 4

From 15 June to 11 September 2017, the Centre Pompidou is devoting a solo exhibition to Hervé Fischer. It presents the various aspects of his activity, from the early 1970s pieces based on the idea of sociological art to the recent large paintings resulting from his economic, philosophical and ethical reflections on society.

Hervé Fischer has adopted an approach linking art and philosophy, also seen in his numerous

books on sociological and digital art. He keeps a sharp eye on topical socio-economic developments

and new technologies. Born near Paris in 1941, he studied at the École Normale Supérieure,

and taught Sociology of Culture and Communication for many years at Sorbonne University,

simultaneously pursuing a career as a multimedia artist.

In the 1970s, he began to express his desire to rebel against tradition and the elitist culture then

pervading the art world. He began a "cultural cleaning-up process" with a body of works and

actions based on "Hygiène de l’art", and destroyed his own works, sharing the gesture in

collective action with other artists through a postal appeal to rip up their art. Fischer made this

approach part of what he called "sociological" art, of which he was one of the chief initiators.

He carried out participatory projects in Europe and Latin America.

In the 1980s, he moved to Quebec, focusing particularly on the digital arts. In 1999, he returned

to painting to explore the imaginary worlds of the social sphere and the contemporary myths

that inhabit our individual imaginations. His work continues to assert "the urgency of active

communication". With this in view, one room is devoted to an interactive approach with the

public, who can use their smartphones with the hashtag #conscienceaugmentee.

With support from

2

2. THE EXHIBITIONA THREE-SECTION CIRCUIT

The exhibition and catalogue, overseen by Sophie Duplaix, the head curator of contemporary collections in the Musée National d'Art Moderne, look back at Hervé Fischer's career from the 1970s to the present day. His corpus illustrates the politically committed role of art in society, flawlessly embodied in his work, which has fostered new sociological sensibilities in his contemporaries and younger generations of artists. Visitors can learn about his entire output through a selection of the works he produced between 1971 and 2017, laid out in three sequences.

ART AND SOCIETYThe exhibition opens with works produced between 1971 and 1983, through which the artist questioned

the ideological functioning of art and the relationship between art and society. He did this firstly

through ripped up art works, then with the "essuie-mains" (hand towel) paintings (hygiène de la

peinture: hygiene of painting) and after that through the prescriptions of the "Pharmacie Fischer" and

the identity cards of the utopian "Bureau d'Identité", which paved the way to public actions in villages

and big cities in Europe and the Americas.

By exploring cultural and political rifts, the artist introduced communication material into a real social

environment, enabling extremely liberated expression that took new forms according to the context.

At this time, his vocabulary was characterised by pills, rubber stamps, banners, pages from daily

newspapers and signs. This signage punctuates the exhibition, reminding us of the prohibitions,

obligations and directions that govern our lives.

Documentation, some of it never previously published, is devoted to the École Sociologique Interrogative

("questioning sociology school"): an alternative place started up by the artist and the sociological art

collective founded in 1974.

Hervé Fischer with his Essuie-Mains/Hygiène de l'art 1971Vinyl chloride with screen-printed motifs, and hand-towel drum© Hervé Fischer archives

2

2

DIGITAL UTOPIAS

The second sequence illustrates the artist's change of direction after his experiments with a politically

committed, extreme sociological art. He moved away from this approach in the mid-1980s, immersing

himself in the digital technologies that opened the way to new and promising utopias. This decision

coincided with his move to Quebec. He only returned to an artistic approach in 1999, painting binary

languages, then digital barcodes. He depicted icons of the economic and financial world while

exploring the myths and social imaginations of the real world (mythoanalysis).

This second area is filled with the chaotic flow of digital structures produced in our daily lives by the

information and consumer society: barcodes, dramatic diagrams of the financial world, scientific

imagery, particularly in the ecological sphere, and art market figures. Fischer adopted the saturated

chromatic ranges of the new digital nature in a series of works he called "digital Fauvism", with which

this section ends, where he depicts the new digital age he theorised about in his essays. Incidentally,

his art has always been closely linked with his theoretical work.

Hervé Fischer La Société de consommation, Nature Morte (Consumer Society; Still Life)2007Acrylic on canvas115 x 162 cmPrivate collection

3

2

ART ON AIR#CONSCIENCEAUGMENTEE

To mark the importance of the social media in our now digital society, Fischer has created the project

ART on Air in a third room. Audiences are greeted by an inflated balloon displaying the message

"#conscienceaugmentee" (augmented awareness), a key word encouraging visitors to take part.

Interactive paintings of Quick Response barcodes display messages when the words painted in them

are scanned.

These works involve questioning words. They invite visitors to tweet by smartphone, stimulated by

screens where "Tweet Arts" scroll by, broadcast all over the world, which are composed by the artist,

Centre Pompidou audiences and the residents of "Poitiers, city of Tweet art" as part of a collaborative

project with that city.

Hervé FischerUne société planétaire (A Global Society)2015Acrylic on canvas92 x 92 cmPrivate collection

IN THE PRESENCE OF THE ARTIST

Hervé Fischer will be present in the exhibition area for the first two weeks after the opening to

reactivate two historic performances: the Pharmacie Fischer and the Bureau d’identité imaginaire.

Audiences should note the following dates:

• Wednesday 21 and Friday 30 June at 6:30 p.m.: Pharmacie Fischer

• Friday 23 and Wednesday 28 June at 6:30 p.m.: Bureau d'identité imaginaire

Hervé Fischer has also been invited for a web session at 7:00 p.m. on Friday 16 June in the Petite Salle (Forum, level -1).

4

2

3. HERVÉ FISCHER AND SOCIOLOGICAL ART CONVERSATION BETWEEN THE ARTIST AND SOPHIE DUPLAIXSophie Duplaix - What is sociological art?

Hervé Fischer - It's about the relationship of art with society. In universities, we talk about the sociology of art to explain how society shapes artistic practice. I taught that at the Sorbonne. And then I thought we could turn the concept around and develop a "sociological art". […] It was a matter of inventing a concept, just like conceptual art or Cubism, with a practice that went with it, developed outside institutions – in the street, in the countryside, in the media. […] Sociological art questions our vision of the world, our values and commitments.

SD - A lot of experiments were made on the ground and in the École Sociologique Interrogative in Paris. How did this come about?

HF - I found a place in Paris I was able to buy, and I converted it myself […] It wasn't very long after May 68. Sociological art was very much linked with the questions asked by the Situationist movement. I didn't join in the revolution in the street, but I was fascinated by the event and the slogan "All power to the imagination". That was when I suggested to Fred Forest and Jean-Paul Thenot, with whom I had formed a sociological art collective, to open an "interrogative sociological school" in the cellar of my house-cum-warehouse, where artists, intellectuals, musicians and a lot of foreigners would come to discuss their relationship with society. […] I saw a lot of artists who arrived looking for a place to park their backpacks and sleep. We ran this "École sociologique interrogative" for several years, until it was dissolved. A lot of debates, round tables, performances and exhibitions took place there […] I wanted to call this place the "École sociologique interrogative" because sociology involves questioning; because it was a place where we explored the relationship between art and society. It became a meeting place for the Paris art underground. We experienced something incredible there. It was ideal for discussions and encounters – a real

window onto the world.

SD - In the late 1990s, you returned to painting. But why with these barcode motifs?

HF - We live on a digital planet, and I've gone for what I call the "digital fine arts". I'm not convinced by this endless stream of pixels we consume in a very fleeting way. It seems to me that we need to slow down time in order to think. And so I wanted to do a "freeze-frame": take a step back, pinpoint and expose the icons and structures of the digital world. More barcodes are read in one second on the planet than crucifixes have been made in 2,000 years throughout the world. It's a very symbolic image of the real world, like a box of pills, a signpost or a hand-towel: a trivial object you wouldn't dream of making the subject of a work. I have worked a lot with traditional barcodes, the ones with vertical lines, and then the ones known as Quick Response, or QR, with a mixture of horizontal and vertical bars. I 've also explored quantitative diagrams. When I became aware of this digital world, with all its structures and icons, it enabled me to take up sociological art again through a new visual language.

Interview bySOPHIE DUPLAIX

Head curator of contemporary collectionsMusée National d'Art Moderne

Curator of the exhibition

Excerpt from the interview in CODE COULEUR no. 28

May/August 2017

5

2

4. HERVÉ FISCHERA SHORT BIOGRAPHY

Born in 1941, Hervé Fischer has dual French and Canadian nationality. A sociological art theoretician

from 1971 onwards, he co-founded in 1974 the Sociological Art Collective with Fred Forest and

Jean-Paul Thenot, and then the "École sociologique interrogative".

He exhibited both individually and within numerous group exhibitions, initiating a large number of

actions on the ground and in the media in Europe and in North and South America. He then emigra-

ted to Quebec, where he founded the City of Art and New Technologies in Montreal in 1985, the first

Electronic Café in Canada, the "Telescience" Festival and "Science for everyone", an association of

scientific culture bodies in Quebec.

Seeking a visual language for sociological art, he returned to painting in 1999, exploring the digital

world and present-day myths. He has taken part in numerous international exhibitions including the

Kassel Documenta and the Venice and São-Paulo Biennials, and leading museums have devoted

exhibitions to him in Europe, Latin America and North America.

Hervé FischerPortrait© Hervé Fischer archives

6

2

5. HERVÉ FISCHERPUBLICATIONS

Hervé Fischer has written around 20 books, including :

• Art et communication marginale, Balland, 1974

• Théorie de l’art sociologique, Casterman, 1977

• L'Histoire de l'art est terminée, Balland, 1981

• L'Oiseau-chat. Roman-enquête sur l'identité québécoise, Éditions La Presse, Montréal, 1983

• La Calle ¿ Adonde llega ? : monografia de un evento social imaginario, Arte y Ediciones, Mexico,1984

• Le Choc du numérique, VLB, 2001

• CyberProméthée, VLB, 2002

• La Planète Hyper, VLB, 2004

• Le Déclin de l’empire hollywoodien (The Decline of the Hollywood Empire), VLB, 2004

• Nous serons des dieux, VLB, 2006

• La Société sur le divan. Éléments de mythanalyse, VLB, 2007

• Un roi Américain, VLB, 2009

• L’Avenir de l’art, VLB, 2010

• La Divergence du futur, VLB, 2014

• La Pensée magique du Net, François Bourin, 2014

• La Postmodernité à l’heure numérique (Regard croisé entre Michel Maffesoli et Hervé Fischer), François

Bourin, 2016

• Market Art, François Bourin, 2016

7

2

6. HERVÉ FISCHER AND SOCIOLOGICAL ARTTHE EXHIBITION CATALOGUE

Bilingual catalogue in French and English edited by Sophie Duplaix, published for the exhibition"Hervé Fischer et l’art sociologique" at the Centre Pompidou from 15 June to 11 September 2017.

8

25 € ISBN 978-2-917217-86-3

Hervé Fischeret l’art sociologique / and Sociological Art

Her

vé F

ische

r et l

’art

soc

iolo

giqu

e /

and

Soci

olog

ical

Art

Ouvrage sous la direction de Sophie Duplaix publié à l’occasion de l’exposition « Hervé Fischer et l’art sociologique » au Centre Pompidou du 15 juin au 11 septembre 2017

Book edited by Sophie Duplaix on theoccasion of the exhibition “Hervé Fischerand Sociological Art” at Centre Pompidoufrom 15 June to 11 September 2017

Hervé Fischer et l'art sociologique / and sociological art

Published by Manuella/Centre Pompidou

Format: 16.5 x 23.5 mm

Hardback

144 pages

220 illustrations

€25

2

7. IMAGES AVAILABLE FOR THE PRESS

9

2Hervé Fischer with his Essuie-Mains/Hygiène de l'art1971Vinyl chloride with screen-printed motifs, hand-towel drum© Archives Hervé Fischer

1Hervé FischerArt - Avez-vous quelque chose à déclarer ?(Art – have you anything to declare?)1971Enamelled metal, diameter: 49.5 cm, depth: 2.5 cmCentre Pompidou collection, Paris© Hervé FischerPhoto credit:Centre Pompidou, MNAM-CCI/BertrandPrévost/Dist. RMN-GP

210

4Hervé FischerLa Nature menacée (Nature in danger)1983Imaginary signagePaint on sheet metalTriangle of 47.5 x 47.5 cmPrivate collection

3Hervé Fischer3 signage panels:Qui penses-tu être? (Who do you think you are?)Qui voudrais-tu être? (Who would you like to be?)Panels on enamelled sheet-metal80 x 80 cm eachPrivate collectionSculpture imaginaire (Imaginary sculpture)1981Panel on enamelled sheet metal30 x 180 cmPrivate collection

211

5Hervé FischerÉcole sociologique interrogative (the "questioning sociological school")Views of the École Sociologique InterrogativeParis, c. 1976

212

6Hervé FischerUne société planétaire (A Global Society)2015Acrylic on canvas92 x 92 cmPrivate collection

7Hervé Fischer La Société de consommation, Nature Morte (Consumer society: still life)2007Acrylic on canvas115 x 162 cmPrivate collection

8Hervé Fischer Sisyphe et la tour de Babel (Sisyphus and the Tower of Babel)2010Acrylic on canvas178 x 178 cmPrivate collection

2

COMMISSARIAT

8. PRACTICAL INFORMATION

Centre Pompidou

75191 Paris cedex 04

telephone

00 33 (0)1 44 78 12 33

subway

Hôtel de Ville, Rambuteau

Opening hours

Exposition open from 11am to 9pm

every day except tuesday

Admission

€14

Concessions €11

Valid the same day for the

Musée National d’Art Moderne and all

exhibitions

Admission free to all members of the

Centre Pompidou

(holders of the annual pass)

Tickets can be bought at

www.centrepompidou.fr and printed at

home

MUTATIONS / CRÉATIONS

ROSS LOVEGROVE12 APRIL - 3 JULY 2017press officerAnne-Marie Pereira00 33 (0)1 44 78 40 69anne-marie.pereira@centrepompidou.fr

WALKER EVANS

26 APRIL - 14 AUGUST 2017

press officerÉlodie Vincent00 33 (0)1 44 78 48 56elodie.vincent@centrepompidou.fr

STEVEN PIPPINABBÉRATIONS OPTIQUES14 JUNE - 11 SEPTEMBER 2017press officerÉlodie Vincent00 33 (0)1 44 78 48 56elodie.vincent@centrepompidou.fr

ANARCHÉOLOGIES15 JUNE - 11 SEPTEMBER 2017press officerDorothée Mireux00 33 (0)1 44 78 46 60dorothee.mireux@centrepompidou.fr

LES DIX ANS DU PRIX DE DESSINDE LA FONDATION D’ARTCONTEMPORAINDANIEL & FLORENCE GUERLAIN15 JUNE - 11 SEPTEMBER 2017press officerTimothée Nicot00 33 (0)1 44 78 45 79timothee.nicot@centrepompidou.fr

DAVID HOCKNEYRÉTROSPECTIVE21 JUNE - 23 OCTOBER 2017press officerAnne-Marie Pereira00 33 (0)1 44 78 40 69anne-marie.pereira@centrepompidou.fr

AT THE MUSEUM :

BERNARD LASSUS 24 MAY - 28 AUGUST 2017press officerDorothée Mireux00 33 (0)1 44 78 46 60dorothee.mireux@centrepompidou.fr

COLLECTIONS MODERNES1905-1965L’ŒIL ÉCOUTE :

NEW DOSSIER EXHIBITION SEQUENCEfrom 18 May 2017press officerTimothée Nicot00 33 (0)1 44 78 45 79timothee.nicot@centrepompidou.fr

A NEW DISPLAY FOR THE

CONTEMPORARY COLLECTIONS from 18 October 2017press officerTimothée Nicot00 33 (0)1 44 78 45 79timothee.nicot@centrepompidou.fr

13

AAT THE SAME TIME AT CENTRE POMPIDOUAPRACTICAL INFORMATION

ACURATOR

Sophie Duplaix

Chief curator of the contemporary

collection, Musée national d'art moderne

Assisted by

Annalisa Rimmaudo

Research officer

Assistant curator

Contemporary collection departement