Cool / As a state of mind curated by Charlotte Cosson & Emmanuelle Luciani, image by Matthias Schweizer
Located on the roof of the former gymnasium of Le Corbusier, Charlotte Cosson and Emmanuelle Luciani present “COOL – As a State of Mind” in MAMO – Centre d’art de la Cité Radieuse, Marseille. This is the follow up to their “A Sip of COOL” exhibition held last autumn at The GAD. The exhibition series is an ongoing research project by the curators into “cool” as a concept. The Marseilles Art Centre, a modernist utopia, is full of the bright and beautiful young artists’ works alongside established practitioners for this group show – far from the anti-decorative abstraction with which this building is associated.
There seems to be a troubling relationship with the concept of “cool”, and its reliance on taste makes for a difficult argument. The pair’s research stems across the ages from attitudes towards coolness as far back as 3000BC within Youba and Igboa societies in Africa, also considering Gramsci’s thesis “that a cultural revolution always precedes a political one”. Sleek spoke with Charlotte and Emmanuelle about how “COOL” came about.
Exhibition view : Cool / As a state of mind curated by Charlotte Cosson & Emmanuelle Luciani copyright Adrien Più
How long have you worked together?
We met in 2012 and started to work together right away. Our first question was, “What is the way out of postmodernism?”. It’s still the driving force of our research.
When did you start researching the concept of cool?
When we first asked the question about the way out of postmodernism, it was clear that the answers do not only lie within the contemporary art sphere. We started to link societal changes to the forms we were watching in works of art. In 2013, when thinking about alternative attitudes towards the power sphere, it became clear that the cool was a highly important question, even though it had almost never been raised regarding art.
Exhibition view : Cool / As a state of mind curated by Charlotte Cosson & Emmanuelle Luciani copyright Adrien Più
How did your research come together with these artists to create the exhibition “COOL / As a State of Mind” at MAMO?
Our thoughts and questions come from the analysis of artworks. We observed a “rematerialisation”, as well as a kind of baroque renewal in young practices–this was why we thought about artists like Mike Kelley, Ed Ruscha and Pipilotti Rist who were pioneers in that line of “doing”. Running parallel to that, we started to historicise the notion of coolness, which, in its modern definition, traces a history of counter-cultures and, at last, of the explosion of our way of “doing” that is inspired by American culture.
Exhibition view : Cool / As a state of mind curated by Charlotte Cosson & Emmanuelle Luciani copyright Adrien Più
Can you talk us through some of the pieces from the exhibition?
If you look at Gaëlle Choisne’s “Conquête et Karnaval” or Dwyer Kilcollin’s “Vase”, you’ll see an important part of the “doing”. Their process is very time consuming, and it takes hours to hand-make their rococo or archeological-like sculptures. We deeply think this rematerialisation has to do with the dematerialisation needed by the Internet Industry. More and more, theories on post-human and post-humanism are rising–an exhibition we curated around these questions is still available to visit at PARADISE– and our tangible world is collapsing. We feel that this collapse – and the fear attached to it – is amazingly well crystallised within Urs Fischer’s “Columns”. His sculptures are heavy, made from cast bronze, and yet we feel like they may crush or melt. Sterling Ruby shows the end of the American imperialism in his “Laying Figure”, covered by stars and stripes. Sterling Ruby was one of Mike Kelley’s protégé – and we can assume that Kelley was an important figure for all the artists of “COOL – As a State of Mind”. He was the one who actually used American popular culture within art – and not advertised consumption goods like pop artists. His shadow is all over this exhibition at MAMO.
Charlotte Cosson & Emmanuelle Luciani copyright Julie Liger
Am I right in thinking, this current exhibition is the third instalment from this series? Is there more to come?
You’re right! We gathered young practices in our previous show, “A Sip of Cool”, and then linked them with the historical Californian artist Jason Rhoades within a second exhibition: “JASON RHOADES: Perfect Process”, in PARADISE / A Space for Screen Addiction that we founded within LECLERE Mdv.
‘COOL – As a State of Mind’ retraces the inner paradoxes of American culture, and how it has now been spread onto the world. It is actually our third show about the “cool”. We always work with series of exhibitions. For instance, we curated “Oracular/Vernacular” at Ora Ito’s MAMO in 2013. We saw a new trend of artists who wanted to project anew toward the future, but without getting rid of the past: casting a vernacular oracle. This name then became the title of our research project because it was – for us – a perfect definition for a new timeframe we might enter into.
We deeply think that one cannot answer a question with one single exhibition. So we decided, back in 2012, to start asking questions within one particular “format” and then answer to them afterward, in other shows, texts, lectures etc. For us, postmodernism is about a suspension of judgment; we want to go away from this stasis in order to draw new paths to follow. You can thus expect many more exhibitions!
COOL – As a State of Mind is on view from 14 February until 26 April 2015 at MAMO – Art Center of the Radiant City.
Interview by Victoria Gisborne-Land
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