Reception: Saturday March 13th
8:30 pm
GRAVITY
Bas Jan Ader
A touring exhibition by Dazibao, centre de photographies actuelles
Bas Jan Ader, or the Quest for an Existentialist Conceptual Art
The gravity of a falling body. The gravity of emotions. Four very short films projected on a loop show Bas Jan Ader falling, trying to defy gravity: Fall 1 (Los Angeles), Fall 2 (Amsterdam), Geometric Fall and Organic Fall. Aders performances, created for the camera, provoke a state of expectation and contemplation, leaving the viewer on the watch for the moment when he will relinquish his hold on gravity. In addition to these images of falling bodies are two works playing on gravity in an completely different register: the famous Im Too Sad To Tell You, a close-up of the artist in tears, and Night Fall. In every one of these works, Ader makes us accomplices to a tragedy of which he is the hero and which we fail to prevent.
Bas Jan Aders work brings together a historical depiction of classical Romanticism and its vernacular depiction in contemporary popular culture in a movement from the sublime to the banal; it is almost as if pure rhetoric was dismantled and then restored to an ordinary experience. Using conceptual strategies, Ader reframes, without ever seeking to validate them, the key motifs of Romanticism. In fact, he sets out to render a generic depiction of Romantic emotions through the conceptual experience of staging them, with the peculiarity that Ader does not describe all these clichs of the Romantic quest or try to convey them by means of interpretation. He truly experiences them. Aders work is not tragic; its subject is the idea of the tragic: between desire and doubt, experience and conjecture, he casts a critical look on Romanticisms so-called authenticity such that an idea generates the work. In this way, even the most tragic ideas, the most heavily connoted on an emotional level, are rendered visually with an implacable, almost absolute logic. Anti-subjective, even iconoclastic, Aders work nevertheless demonstrates how much conceptual art owes to the aesthetic of the sublime, to the idea of experiencing emotion rather than depicting it. The images motifs and even media, while they are not entirely nostalgic, are, shall we say, non-contemporary. They amplify this connection to the aesthetic of the sublime. In this sense, curiously enough, Aders work turns in upon itself, encouraging a kind of Romantic cult of the objectivity of conceptual art.
And yet, through the conceptual experience of the truly carried out gesture, Ader succeeds in bringing out an emotional truth of the Romantic idea, without the impediments of heroism. His work depicts a logic of the dramatic climax which, evacuating any psychological interpretation, achieves an existential degree. Thus in the truth of the action carried out conceptually Aders work reveals itself as being existentialist. The fact that he himself assumes the role of the protagonist, the person who carries out the action, adds to the existentialist nature of his work, but also opens up another, almost paradoxical reversal. The exceptional aura of his tragic death, which is sometimes viewed as his final performance, his grand finale away from the camera, validates the work with a final heroic authenticity, engulfing it in a kind of apotheosis of Romanticismprecisely the critical topic of his entire body of work.
In this way, the shock and pain of his falls cannot be underestimated. The act of falling down affords a glimpse of a kind of rehearsal of dying.
France Choinire
Translated by Timothy Barnard
Bas Jan Ader (1942-1975) was born in Holland. He settled in California in 1963 following an eleven-month journey by boat from Morocco. In the United States (Los Angeles) Ader studied art at the Otis College of Art and Design and philosophy at Claremont Graduate School, where he also taught. Ader became quite involved in the California artistic milieu, participating in conferences and teaching at various institutions, including the University of California, and through numerous exhibitions of his work. Most of his artistic output dates from 1970 to 1975, an especially productive period for him, giving rise to several exhibitions in the United States and Europe. Like many conceptual artists of the day, Ader was interested in the connection between art and life, and a significant body of work resulted from this very brief period of intense artistic activity. He began to study gravitational force in the early 1970s with his well-known series of video performances, Fall. Each performance was carefully documented: the work existed only through the medium used to record it, either video or photography. Tragically, he died at sea in 1975 while crossing the Atlantic in a tiny sailboat. He left behind an influential body of work whose conceptual influence is particularly vital today.
Over the past ten years, Aders influence has become increasingly acknowledged. His work has been shown widely, especially in Mexico, France, Germany, Holland and the United States. In 2007, the Camdem Arts Centre and the Museum Boijmans mounted a retrospective of his work. Gravity is the first major Bas Jan Ader exhibition in Canada since 1973, when the Nova Scotia College of Art and Design, a fertile ground for conceptual art in Canada, presented his recent work.
Gravity is an exhibition prepared by France Choinire for Dazibao, centre de photographies actuelles and presented in collaboration with Patrick Painter Editions and the Bas Jan Ader Estate.
GRAVIT
Bas Jan Ader
Une exposition mise en circulation par Dazibao, centre de photographies actuelles
Bas Jan Ader ou la qute d’un art conceptuel existentialiste
Gravit d’un corps en chute. Gravit des motions. Quatre trs courts films projets en boucle montrent Bas Jan Ader en chute, tentant de dfier la gravit : Fall 1 (Los Angeles), Fall 2 (Amsterdam), Geometric Fall et Organic Fall. Les performances de Ader, cres pour la camra, suscitent un tat dattente et de contemplation laissant le spectateur lafft du moment o il abdiquera de son pouvoir sur la gravit. ces images de corps en chute, s’ajoutent deux uvres se jouant de la gravit sur un tout autre registre, la clbre Im Too Sad To Tell You qui rvle un gros plan de lartiste en pleurs ainsi que Night Fall. Dans toutes ces uvres, Ader nous fait complices d’une tragdie dont il est le hros et que nous chouons prvenir.
L’uvre de Ader ferait se rencontrer une reprsentation historique du romantisme classique et sa reprsentation vernaculaire dans la culture populaire contemporaine, passant du sublime au banal : un peu comme si la rhtorique pure tait dmantele puis restore en exprience ordinaire. Par des stratgies conceptuelles, Ader recadre, sans jamais chercher les valider, les motifs clefs du romantisme. En fait, Ader s’attache rendre une reprsentation gnrique des sentiments du romantisme par l’exprience conceptuelle de leur mise en scne, avec cette particularit que tous ces clichs de la qute romantique, Ader ne les dcrit pas ou n’essaie pas d’en livrer l’essence par le biais d’une interprtation, il les exprimente vraiment. L’uvre de Ader n’est pas tragique, elle est au sujet de l’ide du tragique : entre le dsir et le doute, l’exprience et la spculation, l’artiste scrute d’un point de vue critique cette dite authenticit romantique de sorte que l’ide gnre l’uvre. Ainsi, mme les ides les plus tragiques, les plus lourdement connotes sur le plan motif, sont mises en images avec une logique implacable, voire absolue. Anti-subjectives, mme iconoclastes, les uvres de Ader dmontrent cependant quel point l’art conceptuel est redevable l’esthtique du sublime, cette ide de l’exprience du sentiment plutt que de sa reprsentation. Les motifs et mme les supports l’image qui, s’ils ne sont pas carrment nostalgiques sont, disons, non-contemporains, amplifient ce lien l’esthtique du sublime. Assez curieusement en ce sens, l’uvre de Ader se retourne ds lors sur elle-mme, encourageant une sorte de culte romantique de l’objectivit de l’art conceptuel.
Pourtant, par l’exprience conceptuelle du geste pos pour vrai, Ader russit faire jaillir une vrit motionnelle de l’ide du romantisme, sans les entraves de l’hrosme. L’artiste propose une logique du climax dramatique qui, vacuant toute interprtation psychologique, atteint un degr existentiel. Ainsi, dans la vrit de l’action aborde d’une manire conceptuelle, l’uvre de Ader se rvlerait existentialiste. Le fait que l’artiste s’attribue le rle du protagoniste, de celui qui pose le geste, ajoute au caractre existentialiste de l’uvre mais ouvre aussi sur un autre retournement, voire paradoxe, concernant Ader. Sa mort tragique, d’une aura exceptionnelle, souvent traite comme sa dernire performance, sa grande finale non mdiatise, validerait l’uvre d’une ultime authenticit hroque l’engloutissant dans une sorte d’apothose du romantisme… ce qui a spcifiquement t le sujet critique de toute l’uvre de l’artiste.
Comme quoi la secousse et la douleur de la chute ne pourraient tre sous-estimes dans cet acte de tomber qui laisse entrevoir une sorte de rptition mourir.
France Choinire
Bas Jan Ader (1942-1975) est dorigine hollandaise. Il stablit en Californie en 1963, suite un priple de onze mois en bateau en provenance du Maroc. son arrive aux Etats-Unis (Loas Angeles), Ader tudie lart au Otis College of Art and Design et la philosophie au Claremont Graduate School o il y a galement enseign. Ader sest considrablement impliqu dans la communaut artistique californienne par sa participation des sminaires, son enseignement dans diffrentes institutions, dont lUniversit de Californie, et ses nombreuses expositions. La carrire artistique de Ader sest principalement droule entre 1970 et 1975, priode particulirement fconde pour lartiste et qui a donn lieu de nombreuses prsentations de ses uvres tant aux tats-Unis quen Europe. Comme plusieurs des artistes conceptuels de son temps, Ader sest intress la relation entre lart et la vie et cette trs courte priode de production intensive a laiss place un corpus significatif de lhistoire de lart. Cest au dbut des annes 1970 quil sinvestit dans ltude de la force gravitationnelle avec sa trs connue srie de vidos-performances Fall. Chaque action performative est soigneusement documente, luvre nexistant que dans sa mdiatisation, soit vido ou photographique. Disparu tragiquement en mer en 1975, alors quil traversait lAtlantique bord dun minuscule voilier, lartiste a laiss une oeuvre marquante dont linfluence conceptuelle est particulirement prgnante actuellement.
Depuis les dix dernires annes, linfluence de Ader est de plus en plus reconnue. Son uvre a abondamment t diffuse, notamment au Mexique, en France, en Allemagne, aux Pays-Bas et aux tats-Unis. En 2007, le Camdem Arts Centre (Londres) et le Museum Boijmans (Pays-Bas) lui consacrait une rtrospective. Gravit est la premire exposition dampleur ddie Bas Jan Ader au Canada depuis 1973, alors que le Nova Scotia College of Art and Design, un terrain fertile de lart conceptuel au Canada, avait prsent ses uvres rcentes.
Gravit est une exposition prpare par France Choinire pour Dazibao, centre de photographies actuelles et prsente en collaboration avec Patrick Painter Editions et le Bas Jan Ader Estate.
