Press release. To celebrate the centenary of the Victorine Studios, the City of Nice is staging Nice 2019, L’odyssée du cinéma, a full year of exhibitions and…
Press release. To celebrate the centenary of the Victorine Studios, the City of Nice is staging Nice 2019, L’odyssée du cinéma, a full year of exhibitions and events aimed at showcasing the history of cinema and current film production in Nice. The 109, on the site of the former slaughterhouses, route de Turin, is a venue of exceptional dimensions, converted by the municipality into a centre for contemporary creation. Within this artistic hotbed, the City of Nice and the artists’ collective La Station, with the support of Éva Vautier, invite Ben Vautier for a major summer exhibition entitled: La vie est un film. More than 500 works by Ben, tracing 50 years of creation, will be installed in the great hall of over 2,000 square metres, which he has chosen to share with guests: artists, long-standing friends and young creators. This constantly moving space will host filmed productions, events, performances and debates, so dear to the artist. A major artistic figure of the second half of the 20th century, Ben is known for his actions and his paintings. His output, at once a philosophical reflection and an irreverent take on art, integrates our daily life in all its particularity. Ethnicity, ego and truth are also questions dear to his work. Ben’s story and his art are deeply rooted in the Nice region. He was fourteen when he settled in Nice with his mother. Ten years later, at the end of the 1950s, he opened a second-hand record shop at 32 rue Tonduti de L’Escarène. He soon transformed its façade by accumulating a vast quantity of objects. Le Magasin de Ben was born. This place of encounters and exhibitions became the meeting point for the main artists of the École de Nice: Ben is convinced that “art must be new and bring a shock”. From 1959 onwards, he carried out numerous performances, including “Je signe la vie” or “Regardez-moi cela suffit” on the Promenade des Anglais. In 1963, he invited George Maciunas to Nice for the first Fluxus World Festival and Total Art in France. A historic figure of this movement, on this occasion Ben signed Nice “œuvre d’art ouverte” on the Mont Alban. When Le Magasin de Ben entered the Permanent Collection of the Centre Georges-Pompidou in 1975, he moved his activities to his home on the hill of Saint-Pancrace. Ben continued to organise exhibitions, notably with Supports/Surfaces and Figuration Libre, and launched the first “Pour ou contre” debates. Deeply involved in the contemporary scene, Ben has always supported young artists, encouraged encounters, and given his point of view on current affairs, first through leaflets, posters and newspapers, and today through rich and regular newsletters. The Nice 2019 event, L’odyssée du cinéma, also resonates as a call to Ben’s vast iconographic production. Camera in hand for 60 years, he has built a considerable film archive, following the evolution of techniques, their media and their uses. On café terraces or at artistic events, he captures moments, addresses many…
