Présence Panchounette

Active from 1969 to 1990, the French group Présence Panchounette first made their mark through actions, pamphlets and performances that offered a combination of humour and protest typical of late 60's. Their work critiques Modernism in its minimalist and conceptual forms. Anticipating Appropriation of the 80's, Présence Panchounette use vernacular and decoration as well as references to other cultures (considered impure) in their paintings, sculptures and assemblages to critique and renegotiate the notion of avant-garde.

This retrospective exhibition, the first to be devoted to the group, is displayed in several places in downtown Bordeaux.

Less is less, more is more, that's all.

Parallel to the exhibition of Présence Panchounette, Less is less, more is more, that's all brings together several generations of artists in the main nave of the museum who share a common 'chounette' mindset. In Bordeaux slang 'choune' means vulva and as an adjective is condescendingly used for 'cute'. This simple notion enables the development of a number of practices to challenge the axioms of modern art.

If Modernism said 'less is more' in order to uplift the soul to transform mankind, in 1973 Présence Panchounette have inverted the most famous oxymoron of 20th century art to turn it into a banal pleonasm. It's a dialectic come down with all the trappings of an aesthetic putsch. People always want to beautify their environment and demonstrate an inappropriate creativity that in the eyes of those who uphold 'good taste' will be seen as going overboard. What if this emancipation promised by Art was within everyone's grasp?

The exhibition gathers about eighty artists who challenge the very notion of author and style, the inevitable decorative destiny of any artefact, the celebration of the vernacular, the domestic, the perfunctory, the redefinition of the notion of kitsch 'imbued with class consciousness', cultural misinterpretations, propaganda, rumour, strategies of embarrassment, etc.

Conceived as topography of the 'chounette', the exhibition is furthermore playing with conventions, somewhere between a village fair and a commercial exhibition.

With John Ahearn, John Armeleder, Art & Language, BANK, Guillaume Bijl, Valentin Carron, Maurizio Cattelan, A Constructed World, Jeremy Deller, Wim Delvoye, Jimmie Durham, Hans-Peter Feldmann, Fischli & Weiss, Sylvie Fleury, Claire Fontaine, General Idea, Mona Hatoum, Internationale Situationniste, Irwin, Mike Kelley, Bodys Isek Kingelez, Edward Kienholz, Karen Kilimnik, Jeff Koons, Samuel Kane Kwei, Paul McCarthy, Alessandro Mendini, Gianni Motti, Jim Shaw, Alain Séchas, Gitte Schäfer, Haim Steinbach, Rosemarie Trockel, Jeffrey Vallance, Patrick Van Caeckenbergh, Gil Wolman… and many more! Curators: Charlotte Laubard, Frédéric Roux Until 14 September 2008

Présence Panchounette

Kuratoren: Charlotte Laubard, Frederic Roux

Künstler: John Ahearn, John Armleder, Art & Language , BANK , Guillaume Bijl, Valentin Carron, Maurizio Cattelan, A Constructed World , Jeremy Deller, Wim Delvoye, Jimmie Durham, Hans-Peter Feldmann, Fischli / Weiss, Sylvie Fleury, CLAIRE FONTAINE , General Idea , Mona Hatoum, Situationistische Internationale, Irwin , Mike Kelley, Bodys Isek Kingelez, Edward Kienholz (Edward & Nancy Kienholz), Karen Kilimnik, Jeff Koons, Samuel Kane Kwei, Paul McCarthy, Alessandro Mendini, Gianni Motti, Jim Shaw, Alain Sechas, Gitte Schäfer, Haim Steinbach, Rosemarie Trockel, Jeffrey Vallance, Patrick van Caeckenbergh, Gil Joseph Wolman …