From Nature to Myth

AVI SPERBER

09 October – 06 November 2021

OPENING

9 October 2021

PUBLIC 8pm
FILM-PROJECTION 8pm

PRÉSENTATION

From 09 October to 06 November 2021

Mémoire de l’Avenir – Humanities, Arts and Society
accueillera une exposition
de
Intitulée

AVI SPERBER –

The exhibition From Nature to Myth presents a series of 12 works, between sculpture and ready-made of curved stones entangled with books, through which Avi Sperber proposes a reflection on what have constituted our cultural principles as well as on the role of nature in their foundation, by analysing the story told in chapter 3 of Genesis.

Born in 1943, graduate of the Technion- Haifa in Civil Engineering, MSc. from Northwestern University in Transportation engineering – Evanston Illinois U.S.A. and study at AVNI institute of Art and Design- Tel Aviv, Avi Sperber has been developing a sculptural work for more than 30 years, oscillating between monumentality and reduced formats, which he regularly puts into dialogue. His work unfolds around a powerful symbolism that feeds on the cultural contexts that the artist invests.

It is through the observation of nature, through the fear and wonders it provokes, through the infinite mysteries it contains, that myths, ancestral stories or religions have emerged in all cultures.

Chapter 3 of Genesis, the origin story for monotheistic religions, relates the temptation of knowledge by Eve and Adam and their eviction from Paradise. For Avi Sperber, «it describes the birth of the human being driven by a relentless desire for knowledge. The story is an allegorical fusion of characters and processes that represent various components of human life, which have been interpreted over the generations by many people in different ways and have led to the beliefs that affect our lives to this day”.

From this chapter the artist transports out various themes in his works, such as domination, suffering, identity, the birth of language, work and finitude.

As much as the final works, the materials used carry symbols. The use of stones in these sculptures is a metaphor for the first attempts of human beings to inscribe their thoughts, the materialization of communication, languages and of writing. Stones are also associated with the celestial sphere or evoke the idea of eternity. They often symbolise the passage from this life to the next. For the artist they are also a language within a language. Through them he tries to translate concepts from his interpretation of the story into our contemporary and future histories.

The book, a civilizational symbol, is confronted today with its dematerialization. In this work, Avi Sperber used volumes from the Hebrew Encyclopaedia, a complete encyclopaedia in Hebrew, which was published at the time of the creation of the State of Israel in 1948. «Today, with the development of technology and the enormous amount of information available on the Internet, it has almost no use, and its volumes are sent for recycling, so it represents the ephemeral object – man.» AS

By associating stones with books, Avi Sperber invites us to connect the present with the past, and seeks to produce an image of the continuity of events in the history of human civilization.

Margalit Berriet – Marie-Cécile Berdaguer – curaors of the exhibition

In collaboration with Doron Polak curator of – Avi Sperber : From Eternal Life to Life and Death – Septembre 2021 at Artist Museum, Givatayim – Israël

https://avisperber.com/

FREE admission

OPENING

09 10 2021

PUBLIC 8pm

`PERFORMANCE`

8pm

GALLERY VISITS

du Tuesday to Saturday
11am-7pm

`BY APPOINTMENT`

contact@memoire-a-venir.org

`OFFER`

Group visites
for adults or youth
&
Students

also avialble via
Pass Culture ICI

PERFORMANCE

The evening of the opening
Friday 8 October at 8pm

Initium
Creation for electronic device and dancer

Daniel Cabanzo x Jennifer Gold

This sound and performance piece is a double beginning: a collaboration between the composer and visual artist Daniel Cabanzo and the performer and visual artist Jennifer Gold, and the starting point for the creation of a series of sound pieces that will compose Daniel Cabanzo’s next album.

The artists propose a dialogue in sound and movement around the work of Avi Sperber.

DANIEL CABANZO (Colombia, born in 1979) is a multidisciplinary artist who is interested in different forms of art expression. He studied music at the University of Valle in Cali, Colombia, and composition in France since 2006. He holds a master’s degree in Music applied to visual arts from the University of Lyon 2 and a master’s degree in Acousmatics and sound arts from the Ina-GRM and the University of Paris-Est.

In 2013, he studied at the HEM of Geneva, a school that influenced him towards new musical technologies.

He participated in the Manifeste academy organised by IRCAM as part of the In Vivo Electro 2015 workshop, and collaborated with Le Fresnoy – Studio National des arts contemporains for the Panorama 2016 edition.

He is currently doing his PhD in musicology at the University of Paris-Sorbonne and IRCAM. He has been played by several ensembles in France and in other countries.

JENNIFER GOLD
After training as a dancer and actress, Jennifer Gold decided studied philosophy. In 2015, she joined a theatre company that evolves within the Parisian underground scene. In 2017, together with two other artists, she created an independent production called «Sans Raison» which specialises in fiction, experimental film and performance. From Kant to Genet, through expressionist dance, butoh and cabaret, Jennifer practices the alliance, even the symbiosis, of concepts supposedly in contradiction.

ARTWORKS

By the sweat of your brow you will eat your food Genesis 3:19 – greek marble, iron, hammer, book 25x40x50 cm – 2020

The serpent was more crafty than any of wild animal Genesis 3:1 – ramon stone, ceasar stone, iron, book – 33x30x30 cm – 2020

And they realized they were naked Genesis 3:7 – porcelaingres, book- 60x40x3 cm – 2020

You will crawl on your belly Genesis 3:14 – ceasar stone, book – 3x65x30 cm – 2020