We Go Round in Circles at Night

opening the 28th of february, 17H30

Introducing his film In girum imus nocte et consumimur igni, in 1978, Guy Debord (1931-1994) stated "Nothing could better describe our ineluctable and unrelenting present than this ancient phrase that folds back on itself, letters built like a maze to close you in, a perfect matching of the form and meaning of doom; In girum imus nocte et consumimur igni - We go round in circles at night consumed by fire."

The film deals with the avant-garde period, revolts, friendship and youth, and was to be Guy Debord's last full-length film, an examination of a past time that still needed to be learned from. Indeed, the film ends with an invitation to go back and start again, "à reprendre depuis le début".

Visitors to the exhibition at Rochechouart will find works on all three floors of the Museum not so much linked by a single theme as extending the film's lines of enquiry, a web of connections loosely spun, both an introduction and a conclusion.

The emotional content of Debord's work provides a starting point for exploring feelings generated by the night-time vision of a circle of fire: these range from forgetting the past with "overwhelming passion" (Guy Debord) to perceiving artworks as ruins with a tangible past and future (Le temps en ruine, [Time in Ruins] by Marc Augé). Other recurring themes include rotation (Bruce Nauman, Zilvinas Kempinas) and combustion seen variously as an allegory of loss (Steve McQueen), return (Ugo Rondinone), explosion (Claude Lévëque), resurgence (Maire & Chambaud), energy (Berdaguer & Pejus) or exhaustion (Barry Le Va). Whilst several works adopt a nocturnal tone (Ian Hamilton Finlay, Douglas Gordon), all the pieces in the exhibition conjure contrasting feelings of melancholy and disclosure.

The twenty works on display come from the Museum's own collection as well as other public (Centre Georges Pompidou, Frac Ile-de-France, Frac Limousin and Frac Languedoc Roussillon) and private collections (please see attached list). They include a specially commissioned site-specific work by Mark Geffriaud.

Curator: Olivier Michelon.

Nous tournons en rond dans la nuit
(We Go Round in Circles at Night)
Kurator: Olivier Michelon

Künstler: Guy Debord, Bruce Nauman, Zilvinas Kempinas, Steve McQueen, Ugo Rondinone, Claude Lévêque, Benoit Maire / Etienne Chambaud, Christophe Berdaguer / Marie Pejus, Barry Le Va, Ian Hamilton Finlay, Douglas Gordon ...