L’Art et son Concept

QG Gallery and co-curator Victor Hugo Riego are proud to present the upcoming group exhibition L’ART ET SON CONCEPT.

We borrow the exhibition title from the two catalogues by Cornette de Saint-Cyr (1990-1991), from which the artwork selection was made by Ghislain Mollet-Viéville, to whom we pay homage.

Renowned expert and critique of contemporary art, specialist in minimal and conceptual art, he is highly regarded internationally. His private collection, named L’Appartement, is currently part of the permanent collection of the MAMCO museum in Geneva. The rigor of his eye in contemporary art has inspired us and guided us in the curation of this exhibition which will be shown in two parts.

At the center of this exhibition, the role of an idea in art.

Ghislain Mollet-Viéville tells us in the introduction of the catalogue: “We owe it to Marcel Duchamp (since The Bottle Rack) to have given to art, an identity outside of sculpture and painting. And at the end of the 60’s ideas appear with the aim to make the idea, in art, a priority in comparaison to the compositions more or less decorative or spectacular which come from the artistic production of the past centuries”.

Conceptual artists will therefore modify the established relationship between an artwork and the spectator or buyer by introducing texts which question and transform the status and perception of the work of art. These artworks deconstruct the codes we use to build reality. These artists analyse these codes and propose a self-reflection on how we conceive art. The artwork creates a mental process which changes the perception of the spectator.

(Excerpt from the press release by Victor Hugo Riegoa)