Bernar Venet New York, Versailles, Budapest

Cura­tor: Ale­xand­re De­vals He is 71 years old, he does not like what is an­ti­que, at least not what was made be­fo­re 1950, and he is drea­ming about a be­droom that is comp­let­ely empty and white. He was born in France, as a child he wis­hed to be a mis­si­on­ary, and he was sus­pen­ded for a week at the art scho­ol of Nice for de­fend­ing Pi­cas­so aga­inst his fel­low stu­dents. In the early six­ti­es he pain­ted his works with his feet on the floor, and in his first re­cor­ded per­for­mance he had himself pho­to­gra­phed among dust­bins. After moving to New York he lived in Soho and made his fur­ni­tu­re from ply­wood that he found in the streets. He wor­ked as the­at­re set de­sign­er, poet, sculp­tor, and he also wrote a bal­let based on ver­ti­cal stage tech­ni­que.

His stra­ight-cur­ving-brok­en-in­fi­ni­te pipes and bars were ex­hi­bi­ted in many halls and parks around the world, he had a per­for­mance in Bu­da­pest (at the ex­hi­bit­ion Fém­jel­zés in Kun­sthal­le), and also com­po­s­ed music in which shots were fired.
His ars po­e­ti­ca: “It is only th­ro­ugh tak­ing risks that one may reach that which is worth sho­wing.” Ac­cord­ingly, his per­for­man­ces and ex­hi­bit­ions, which tend to pro­voke the pub­lic taste, are cap­ab­le of moving mas­ses of people. One of his fa­mous art­works, a 60 tons com­po­sit­i­on of rusty iron bars that crea­tes the bare ribs of a metal-being, fra­m­ing the sta­tue of Louis XIV, which was made in the work­shop of Nyárs­apá­ti and ex­hi­bi­ted in Ver­sailles this autumn, ga­ined sig­ni­fi­cant media co­ver­age. It was im­pe­tu­o­usly called “a pier­cing put in Mona Lisa’s ears”, while si­mul­ta­ne­o­usly praised for its imp­le­men­ta­ti­on as sho­wing a level of en­gi­ne­e­ring ex­per­ti­se com­pa­rab­le to that be­hind the vi­a­duct of Mil­lau.

The awards he re­ce­i­ved speak for them­sel­ves: In 1989 he was awar­ded with the Grand Prize of the City of Paris, and later, in 2005 he re­ce­i­ved the French Le­gi­on of Ho­no­ur.

The pre­sent ret­ros­pec­tive ex­hi­bit­ion at Kun­sthal­le ope­ning Ja­nu­ary 26, 2012 aims at ser­ving with a comp­re­hen­sive view of the as­to­nishingly co­he­rent oeuvre of an ar­tist be­long­ing to the for­ef­ront of the mi­ni­ma­list and con­cep­tu­a­list mo­ve­ments, whose oeuvre ranges from pi­e­ces of a ra­di­cally new pers­pec­tive crea­ted 50 years ago in New York to the large-scale ma­s­ter­pi­e­ces re­cently disp­la­yed in Ver­sailles.

AC­COM­PA­NY­ING EVENTS
Li­ter­ary prog­rams

The Venet-Co­ef­fi­ci­ent

Feb­ru­ary 23, Thurs­day, 7 pm Pub­lic read­ing by: Má­tyás Du­naj­csik, Dénes Kru­sovsz­ky Music: Spi­ri­tus No­is­ter ‒ Ka­ta­lin Ladik, Endre Szká­ro­si and Zsolt Sőrés

March 22, Thurs­day 7 pm Pub­lic read­ing by: And­rás For­gách, Krisz­ti­na Tóth Music: Bori Rut­kai and the Spec­ko Jedno
Tic­ket: 500 HUF

Con­cert

Feb­ru­ary 3, Fri­day 7 pm
David Yen­gi­ba­ri­an – acc­or­ci­on
Tic­ket: 900 HUF

Dance per­for­mance

2012. Feb­ru­ary 24, Fri­day 7 pm
Tünet Együt­tes: Olyan fur­csa vagy ma (You are so strange today)
Di­rec­ted by: Réka Szabó
Dance: Zsó­fia Ta­ma­ra Vadas / Réka Szabó
Music: Hunor G. Szabó / Krisz­ti­án Kel­ner
Vi­su­als: Kiégő Izzók

Tic­ket: 900 HUF
All prog­rams and events may be sub­ject to chan­ge.
More in­for­ma­ti­on about the prog­rams you can find HERE!
2012. January 26. - March 25.

Kunsthalle, Budapest

Tickets
2012. January 19. - March 18.
Previous exhibition

Opus Magnum

2012. February 23. - April 29.
Next exhibition

Marina Abramović: Eight Lessons on Emptiness with a Happy End