This is a fun exhibition … and a little pest. On paper, the idea is attractive: one hundred artists of the contemporary scene were invited to copy a work of the Louvre in complete freedom, according to what their “See you just today– The commissioners (Chiara Parisi and Donatien Grau) did not expect a faithful reproduction, but rather a creation in agreement with the work of each. Because if the copy has become suspect (“The good artists copit, the great artists fly“Said Picasso thus torpulating this practice in the 20th century), as we know, plastic artists still look a lot the works of the past, they are also inspired by them.
After a tight delay-less than a year-, the current “copies”-sculptures, paintings, installations, clothes, videos-were therefore returned and here they are hung at the Center Pompidou-Metz in a heterogeneous course which as best he can as best they can of very different signatures. A disappointment, from the start of the course: no reminder of the original work of the Louvre is displayed near the creation. How then to see the freedoms that artists have taken with the original work, as famous as it is? Too bad, because it is quite fun to browse the exhibition with the gaze of a teacher who we make a “copy”: has the contract been completed? How did the artist fade with his subject?
The works of “copyists” can thus look like those of a joyful turbulent class, sometimes shone
