It’s hard to understate the pride I felt on behalf of my colleagues at Behavior when I read these words in Friday’s New York Times: “The Museum of Modern Art’s elegantly plain exhibition of Georges Seurat’s drawings begins with an unexpectedly extraordinary moment of computerized art viewing. Seurat’s four surviving notebooks have been converted to electronic versions that — with a touch of a finger — visitors can flip through, page by digital page, from cover to dog-eared cover.”

Workshops

A two-day international workshop to develop a framework for a research laboratory on contemporary art and anthropology in Oslo
31 October - 1 November 2007 - Kulturhistorisk Museum, University of Oslo, Norway.
Convenor:Arnd Schneider, Institute of Social Anthropology, University of Oslo
The two-day workshop, the first in a number of consultation events, willexplore ideas and future potentials in the establishment of a`laboratory’ in Norway which combines ethnographic and art practicesacross a number of institutions and fields (anthropology, arthistory/criticism, contemporary art practice and museums).Thus the workshop conceived as an open discussion forum, with theintention to chart a preliminary matrix for a future art-ethnographylaboratory in Oslo.
A number of invited national and international speakers (including TerjeBrantenberg, Geir Tore Holm, George Marcus, Amanda Ravetz, Amiria Salmond, Sissel Tolaas, Chris Wright - full list available on request), from both the worlds of contemporary art and anthropology, will report onexisting projects which incorporate ethnographic and art practices, orprovide a counterpoint as respondents to reports from Norway or abroad.
Full programme available on request fromMorten Kjeldseth Pettersen (m.k.pettersen@sai.uio.no)
Participation is free, but places are limited. Please register your interest with:
Morten Kjeldseth Pettersen (m.k.pettersen@sai.uio.no)

On October 4 2007, Mac/Val inaugurated its new exhibition at Vitry-sur-Seine :
“Stardust or the Last Frontier”
about representations of the sky and the stars, self-image and images of the beyond. “Sputnik 1, the first man-made satellite, was launched at Baikonur on October 4, 1957” noted the two curators with a grin.

Mac/Val’s fall exhibition “Stardust or the Last Frontier” (until January 13 2008) proposes a journey into space that, through the imagination of some forty-odd artists, becomes a “mirror of the world”. Alexia Fabre (chief curator of the museum) and Frank Lamy (director of temporary exhibitions) have selected approximately sixty works that perfectly complement the permanent collection display, entitled Being Present in the World. Our gaze is lifted to the beyond, so as to better refocus on ourselves.

Frank Lamy adds: “Skies, planets, stars, the Milky Way, constellations, satellites, supernovas, the Big Bang, black holes, space-time, rockets, and astronauts are all protagonists of this saga. It’s an attempt to describe the Beyond, and thus also the human condition. It’s about fiction, masks, creating an image, but also about power, conquest, colonialism, and identity…”
The exhibition includes never-before-seen works by young French artists represented in Mac/Val’s permanent collection - including Jacques Monory, Serge Guillou, Bernard Moninot, and Melik Ohanian - alongside works from other artistic scenes, including Great Britain, Canada, and Switzerland (see preliminary list below).

” Stardust or the last frontier ” emphasizes the universality of its theme, allowing the viewer to question the idea of proper scale and to reflect on the self and its relationship to the world. Although the topic is a serious one, the two curators, in keeping with the museum’s mission, have deliberately emphasized different levels of interpretation, ranging from a light-hearted view of formal representation to fundamental metaphysical questioning. They offer the audience a personal experience, a type of personal projection, and paid close attention to the educational materials of the exhibition.

List of artists in the exhibition:
Guy Allott, Renaud Auguste-Dormeuil, Nicolas Baier, Gilles Barbier, Neal Beggs, Davide Bertocchi, Pascal Broccolichi, Etienne Chambaud, Claude Closky, Tony Cragg, Julien Discrit, Erró, Sylvie Fleury, Claude Gassian, Trevor Gould, Serge Guillou, Andreas Gursky, Vincent Lamouroux, Roberto Martinez, Philippe Mayaux, Paul McDevitt, Jorge Méndez Blake, Aleksandra Mir, Joachim Mogarra, Bernard Moninot, Jacques Monory, Olivier Mosset, Nicolas Moulin, Melik Ohanian, Roman Ondák, Bruno Peinado, Didier Rittener, Gwen Rouvillois, Thomas Ruff, Stéphane Sautour, Yinka Shonibare MBE, Bridget Smith, Wolfgang Tillmans, James Turrell, Jean-Luc Vilmouth, Mark Wallinger, Jane & Louise Wilson, Jordan Wolfson.

Mac/val
www.macval.fr
Musée d’art contemporain du Val-de-Marne
Place de la Libération
94404 Vitry-sur-Seine cedex

contact
e-mail: contactmusee@cg94.fr
tel: +33 (0)1 43 91 64 20
fax: +33 (0)1 43 91 64 30

ADMISSION FEES:
Full price: 4 euros
Concessions: 2 euros - groups (min. 10 people)
Cine-concert: 6 euros - concessions: 4 euros
Cinema: 4 euros - concessions: 2 euros

by car:
From the Porte de Choisy, follow the Nationale 305 road to the Carrefour de la Libération in Vitry-sur-Seine. Sculpture by Jean Dubuffet.

by metro:
Line 7 (direction Mairie d’Ivry) to Porte de Choisy then take bus n° 183 (direction Orly Terminal Sud) to Moulin de Saquet-Pelletan.

By train:
RER C to Vitry-sur-Seine station then take bus n° 180 (direction Villejuif-Louis Aragon) to Moulin de Saquet-Pelletan.