Mouvements Modernes at PAD Paris 2024

April 3 2024 - April 7 2024
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Color of the night and symbol of death, black structures our worldview. Historian Michel Pastoureau analyzes black as a cultural and social phenomenon and describes its evolution throughout history in his writings.

 

For the 2024 edition of PAD Paris, Mouvements Modernes focuses on questioning the use of black by artists and designers of the 20th century and today. Once considered the color of hell, black has not always been a negative hue. Throughout its history, it has also been associated with fertility, temperance, and dignity. In recent decades, it has come to embody elegance and modernity.

A key entry point into this analysis of color is a work by the artist Aurélie Galois, centered around rubber as its support, pigment, and subject—black in all its material and symbolic aspects.

 

"A color never comes alone; it only makes sense, it only 'works' fully from a social, artistic, and symbolic point of view when it is associated or contrasted with one or more other colors. Therefore, it is impossible to consider it in isolation." Following Michel Pastoureau's perspective, the color gold will reveal and question black on the stand, featuring an absolute black piece by Martin Szekely contrasting with a golden bronze by Marion Mailaender, a cabinet, and a pair of lamps by Garouste and Bonetti playing with this association. The ceramics of Léontine Furcy and Michal Fargo will bring the softness of black in contrast with the brightness of a blown glass artwork appearing to be molten gold by Nadège Desgenétez. Tim Leclabart and his side table Sagitarius A will offer a smoothing vision of this absolute black in space.

 

Finally, this new edition of PAD will be an opportunity to present two new collaborations, one with Sam Baron and his enchanting and surreal plants blown by Venetian master glassmakers, and the other with Benoit Maire and his furniture inspired by his residency at Villa Medici.

Black has always attracted artists and designers. It absorbs light and reflects it. It creates substance and allure. It emphasizes the lines of a drawing. Black pairs with gold, creating a unique vibration for this powerful duo! In a white setting, Mouvements Modernes will take you on an exploration of black through about fifteen pieces that reveal the intensity of this color.

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