“Salmon pink Molinier” at the MECA, “Prehistoric art” at the Musée d’Aquitaine and “Mini-monstres” at Cap Sciences: three opportunities to go out without exposing yourself to the heat wave, and to cultivate yourself, between adults for the sulphurous Pierre Molinier, and in family for the other two.
The cultural offer is plethoric in terms of exhibitions this summer in Bordeaux, between Jofo at the Bernard-Magrez Institute, Denis Monfleur at the Museum of Fine Arts or Kapwani Kiwanga at the CAPC. But others deserve a visit, for some urgently because they will soon close.
Rediscover Molinier (adults only)
“I crawl towards Gehammam”, by Pierre Molinier (Adagp/Frédéric Delpech)
You will be cool, but it can make you hot: the “Molinier rose salmon” exhibition is still on display at the MECA until 17 September.
The New Aquitaine Regional Contemporary Art Fund has chosen to celebrate its 40th anniversary by paying tribute to the Bordeaux artist Pierre Molinier. From its creation in 1982, the Frac initiated its collection “by acquiring around thirty works by this artist”.
Pierre Molinier, known for his controversial and subversive art, was “considered marginal” for a long time, before being “recognized today as an emblematic figure of art in France and abroad”. Due to the “erotic dimension” of certain works, the exhibition is prohibited for minors and photos are not permitted.
The exhibition thus proposes to “reveal unpublished archives and testimonies” which allow us to come back to the history of this artist and his link with the city.
Censorship
In 1951, his painting Le Grand Combat which depicts “intertwined bodies caught in an erotic whirlwind” was censored. In the first room of the exhibition, a large white wall is adorned with a message from the artist in red letters, protesting against this sidelining of the 30th Salon des Indépendants Bordeaux.
Yet Molinier is a big name in Bordeaux: he settled there in 1922 as a painter and became one of the founding members of the Society of Independent Artists of Bordeaux.
This active participation in Bordeaux artistic life did not save him from censorship:
“Deemed indecent, the work, veiled, becomes the reason for a shattering and publicized break with the “good society” of Bordeaux (artists included); an institutional, social and aesthetic rupture. »
In one of the rooms in the exhibition, a plan of his “boudoir-workshop room” at 7 rue des Faussets is drawn on the wall, in the middle of historical explanations and anecdotes about the rooms of this residence. “It then became a place of work and mystique where friendships, loves, solitary pleasures and gender performances were shared between consenting adults. »
The spectator will be able, through the rest of the exhibition, to contemplate photographs, sculptures and other original and subversive drawings. Works by Molinier, but also by many other artists to explore through this exhibition “his sources of inspiration and highlight contemporary artistic affiliations and trans-generational affinities”.
For the youngest, the Frac offers a room dedicated to the discovery of Pierre Molinier through fifteen of his works to “question the body and genders”, by addressing the representation of male and female bodies or even “transvestism”.
Until September 17, 2023. Information on the Frac website.
Prehistoric art, emotion intact 40,000 years later (all audiences)
35,000 years before our era, the South West of France was an icy steppe, where Homo Sapiens hunted reindeer and aurochs. But our ancestors are already showing amazing creativity. If the general public thinks first of the frescoes of Lascaux or Chauvet, the exhibition which is held until January 7 at the Museum of Aquitaine presents a fascinating panorama of the forms of art that have come down to us.
Their (re)discovery was late: 1845 for a bone representing two hinds in the Chaffaud cave, 1896 for the mammoth engravings in the Pair-non-Pair cave. Their update brings “irrefutable proof that parietal art does indeed exist”, and is not the work of forgers as many thought. “Indeed, these engravings are buried under rich archaeological layers and therefore cannot be more recent than these”, can be read on the cartels of the expo.
450 exhibits
It is mainly animal art, as well as symbols, which are painted on the walls of the caves, by experienced artists, knowing their models perfectly and transmitting their knowledge “from generation to generation but also from groups to groups”. The exhibition, designed with Spanish and Portuguese museums, thus demonstrates the intensity of the exchanges of knowledge and objects on both sides of the Pyrenees, between then nomadic peoples.
Experts from these establishments, as well as from the National Archaeological Museum of Saint-Germain-en-Laye, shed light on the videos that punctuate the route, articulated around more than 450 pieces – mainly casts, the originals being too fragile for display: bifaces (flint), items of adornment – such as these bear canine pendants – or even bones engraved with human figures, including the famous Lady with a hood in mammoth ivory discovered in 1894 in Brassempouy in the Landes.
Mysterious meaning
Also exhibited are musical instruments such as bone flutes or rhombs, and we now understand that the cavities of caves and stalactites or stalagmites served as percussion… What was the meaning of these artistic expressions? It remains mysterious, can we read at the conclusion of the exhibition:
“The successive theories (“art for art’s sake, hunting magic, shamanism…) have all been contradicted by subsequent theories. Current research focuses on art as a support for myths, common stories, necessary for the cohesion of small groups of hunters-gatherers of the Palaeolithic. »
But today, the text continues, “everyone, with their sensitivity, can be touched, moved by these paintings and engravings that come to us from a distant past. This is proof of the universal force of art, capable of arousing emotions and this is perhaps also what makes us human”.
In fact, and even if we regret the absence of facsimiles of walls such as those created for Lascaux 3, the visitor has something to be captivated by the finesse and precision of the works. Many games and a tactile course allow children to embark on this journey through time.
Until January 7, 2024. Information on the website of the Museum of Aquitaine
Look for the little beast (with his children)
The “mini-monster” exhibition at Cap Sciences offers 4 interactive spaces (MP/Rue89 Bordeaux)
“Who has never had to deal with lice, ticks and other small creatures… which we just want to get rid of, but which play a fundamental role that is still too little known in terms of biodiversity?” »
This is the question that Cap Sciences asks to introduce the exhibition “Mini-monsters: lice, ticks and other small animals”, presented from June 7 to May 5, 2024, and which will teach you more about these ” little beasts” with which we live without necessarily knowing them well.
The exhibition designed and produced in 2020 by the Confluences natural history museum in Lyon, was also presented at the National Museum of Natural History in Paris, from October 22, 2022 to April 23, 2023, before “stopping over” in Bordeaux. .
4 immersive and fun courses
For about 1h30, you can explore the 4 spaces of the exhibition.
First, the part “The body is an ecosystem” allows us to discover how our body “houses a multitude of invisible creatures” that hide in our hair, hair on our skin: an environment that these “parasites” need. to live.
“If we were fleas, we would be able to jump over the Eiffel Tower! exclaims the guide at the start of the visit to introduce the second part of the exhibition: “Species with superpowers”.
Made up of half-open compartments, this space allows visitors to get to know these mini-monsters in more detail, but also learn some surprising information. In addition to the flea jump, you might also be thrilled (or disgusted) to learn that the larvae of 3 flies are able to devour a horse’s corpse as fast as a lion would. Yum.
Impossible to miss the third part of the exhibition as the giant microscope that is part of it attracts attention. Through “the microscope and the mystery of the invisible”, we understand how humans have observed these creatures for a long time, what techniques and scientific advances have made it possible to advance knowledge in this area. Interactive, this space allows you to observe real little creatures through magnifying objects.
“You will even learn that there is no chocolate without a mosquito”, finally concludes the guide to present the last space: “a programmed invasion” which should make it possible to convince visitors not to exterminate at all costs these species which are very useful.
This part explores the relationship of humans to these little beasts and addresses their different social representations, the myths and legends of different continents associated with them and especially how our contemporary lifestyles affect their proliferation. We learn, for example, how these various species adapt to the harmful chemicals we use to get rid of them and how the extension of cities, coupled with global warming, is responsible for the “invasion” of these mini-monsters, always more numerous.
Still curious?
Cap sciences completes the visit with three other stages: an observation workshop offers visitors the opportunity to “reconstruct a large puzzle of biodiversity in a nearby ecosystem”; the “curious challenge”, a fun quiz between two teams of visitors organized on the model of a TV game show, will call on the knowledge acquired during the exhibition but also on your general knowledge! Rue89 Bordeaux lent itself to the exercise, and even found itself in the final!
Finally, “The expoZZZition, on the track of the Tiger Mosquito”, designed by the Federation of Fishing and Protection of the Aquatic Environment of the Gironde should allow to “better understand the particularities of the tiger mosquito”. This insect, which can carry dangerous diseases such as chikungunya, dengue fever or zika, has been “strongly established in the region since 2014”.
Until May 5, 2024. Info on the Cap Sciences website
2023-08-25 09:13:31
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