The negative version of the official version of things

The negative version of the officiai version of things
curated by Julie Beaufils

Lucas Arruda | Julie Beaufils | Morgan Courtois | Jacob Eisenmann | Kim Farkas | Nicolas Faubert | Rafik Greiss | Benjamin K Bertrand | Louise Lawler | Laura Owens | Mona Varichon

Beneath the officiai version of history, other unofficial versions often develop, like film negatives from a series of photos. These can be histories with a capitai "H," as much as popular stories that are transmitted from generation to generation, from lips to ears. In "What ls the Contemporary?" Agamben writes : "The ones who can cali themselves contemporary are only those who do not allow themselves to be blinded by the lights of the century, and so manage to get a glimpse of the shadows in those lights, of their intimate obscurity."1 History, as we know it, and as we are included in it, forms around the writings of those who have won wars, conquered kingdoms, imposed laws, and had the chance to tel1 the stories of those struggles. The voices of others-the oppressed, the dissenting-are heard in other ways. Surviving through writing and visual arts, these voices are shared like underlying testimonies, though they are no less precious and no less authentic. Through the power of their narratives and the strength of their images, these alternative histories sometimes even succeed at overriding the officiai version.
On a scale beyond that of our world, the universe contains matter that is both visible and invisible to our human eyes. The latter is what astrophysicists cali "dark matter,'' which, according to recent studies, is much more dense and widespread than visible matter. lts presence is detected because it takes up a great deal of space and thus maintains the compact order of visual elements. As such, luminous matter and dark matter balance one another throughout the universe.
Drawing from this metaphor, the concept here is to show how the practices of 11 contemporary artists exist and coexist in the world today. Each is situateci within a constellation of references from persona! experience, popular culture, and pieces of western and non-western art history. Looking at their work, we can reflect on what it means to be "contemporary" today, and what it means to have access to so many references simultaneously. The omnipresence of social media leads us to reconsider the origins of information, to toggle between public and private, to follow or not to follow a profile illuminateci by its number of followers. Faced with multiple versions of the same fact or story, we must question the authenticity of the source, the sovereignty of which is challenged each time. Although this constant questioning can at times be disconcerting, it can also become valuable by allowing for a multiplicity of perspectives and a diversity of narratives. At a time when certain large companies have as much or even more power than governments, the relationship between officiai and unofficial is no longer binary but gives way to an assembly of voices. The selection of criteria for determining the value of one narrative over another remains as relevant as ever.

The current exhibition proposes to see how, in this contemporary era, artists make visible what might not be already, what is held in the shadows by a light too blinding.

Julie Beaufils