Over your cities grass will grow
Opening today at the Galerie Thaddaeus Ropac in Pantin, a suburb of Paris, is a group exhibit entitled: Disaster/The End of Days.
From the curator’s catalogue:
The word disaster comes from “disastro” (dis- and astrum, “bad star” or “star out of position,” thought to cause harm). It expresses the notion of catastrophe, decline and destruction, a wholly negative event. The theme of disaster has a rich iconography and set of interpretations, and continues to fascinate contemporary artists. This exhibition looks at current perceptions of disaster through a dialogue between artists from a variety of cultural and social backgrounds, working in media from painting to photography, video and installation.
Ezra Pound claimed that artists are the antennae of the race. Long-incarcerated at St. Elizabeth’s Hospital (now site of the supposedly or potentially permanent Department of Homeland Security headquarters), the poet also complained “the bullet headed many” do not pay attention to meaning transmitted by the antennae. Contemporary artists are seldom optimistic.
One of the artists featured at today’s Paris opening is Anselm Kiefer. The video clip is from a documentary on Kiefer. MORE.
