Concert in the Foyer, standing.
In resonance with Mike Kelley’s exhibition Ghost and Spirit, the Bourse de Commerce has compiled a programme of concerts and performances that address the importance of music in Mike Kelley's work. This programme draws on his influences, close collaborators, and a generation of musicians and performers who have been inspired by his musical explorations.
French conceptual artist Loris Gréaud, whose polymorphous work blurs the boundaries between fiction and reality, collaborates for a noise performance with Lee Ranaldo, a long-standing member of the no-wave band Sonic Youth, who has been close to Mike Kelley since their collaboration in 1986 at Artist Space on the performance Plato's Cave, Rothko's Chapel, Lincoln's Profile and the iconic cover of Sonic Youth's 1992 album Dirty. Together, Loris Gréaud and Lee Ranaldo present Cortical: Soundtrack for a Monograph at the Bourse de Commerce.
Since 2007, Loris Gréaud and Lee Ranaldo have regularly collaborated on sound, conceptual and cinematographic works. In 2021, curated by Coralie Gauthier, the two artists reunited to deliver an original live sound performance from the rooftop of the Hotel Greystone for Miami Art Week.
In 2023, the duo reunite for an exclusive Parisian sequence in the form of a diptych of two unique concerts: October 16 in the Catacombes crypt, October 21 at the Bourse du Commerce - Pinault Collection. The only constant: a fixed duration of 23:23 min for the potential soundtrack of a monograph... and an array of modified, tailor-made instruments to produce intense soundscapes.
Since the early 2000s, Loris Gréaud has been developing a singular trajectory on the contemporary art scene, producing conceptual environments where reality, fiction and rumors interwine. In 2025, for the reopening of the Museum of Contemporary Art Detroit (MOCAD), he will propose a site-specific exhibition near Mike Kelley's legendary Mobile Homestead.
Lee Ranaldo is an American musician, composer and writer, founding member and guitarist of the alternative rock band Sonic Youth. He has been developing a rich solo body of work since the late 1980s. In 2021, he released the album In Virus Times, an all-instrumental acoustic work. The same year, in collaboration with Jim Jarmusch, he published Churning of the Ocean, extended instrumental tracks from a nocturnal studio session.
In resonance with Mike Kelley’s exhibition Ghost and Spirit, the Bourse de Commerce has curated the following programme of concerts and performances:
- On 14 September, American artist Will Benedict presents the musical performance Pandemonium
- On 14 October, a concert by the American trio Dick Slessig Combo
- On 15 October, a concert by the Japanese group Marginal Consort
- On 19 October, British artist Anthea Hamilton presents Decade of Emotion
- On 20 October, a concert by Sun Ra Arkestra and by American musician KESSWA, with an introductory lecture by French journalist Joseph Ghosn
- On 7 February the artist Lily McMenamy will premiere her latest solo theatre piece “A Hole is a Hole” and the singer Bernardino Femminielli presents his concert « pot-pourri »
- On 16 February, on the occasion of the closing of this exhibition, the Bourse de Commerce and New York label Blank Forms are hosting a final evening of performances that combine poetry, noise, and extreme rock music with John Sinclair, Junko, Cannibal, Lizzi Bougatsos & Marc Edwards
