Sur les bancs de la Bourse - Clair-obscur
Free for members
The Bourse de Commerce’s evening lectures are part of a new way to experience contemporary art, designed for Pinault Collection members. Using works from the Collection as a starting point, these sessions shed light on the key movements and ideas that have shaped contemporary art.
The lectures are conducted in French only and will also be live-streamed on our YouTube channel.
16 May – In the Shadow of the Enlightenment
The exhibition "Clair-obscur" traces a strand of contemporary art that explores overlooked aspects of modernity. Archaic rites, alchemical adventures, grotesque carnivals, an appeal to poetry and sensitivity, the desire to communicate with the beyond: this panorama of contemporary chiaroscuro shows how, over the past century, artists have sought, in the shadow of rationality, order, and clarity, unexpected paths to rethink our relationship with the world.
Conference led by Nicolas-Xavier Ferrand, Head of research, Pinault Collection.
20 April – Persistences of the Sacred
Although twentieth-century modern art often defined itself in opposition to Christian tradition, the sacred has never truly disappeared from modern and contemporary art.
Through works by artists featured in the exhibition "Clair-obscur" such as James Lee Byars, Saodat Ismailova, Bill Viola, and Danh Vō, this conference examines the persistence of the sacred within contemporary art, which remains an important space for exploring questions of the sacred in a secularised world.
Conference led by Des Mots et Des Arts, with Morgane Evrard, Art History Professor, graduated from the Sorbonne and École du Louvre.
18 May – Artistic and Intellectual Sources of Chiaroscuro
The exhibition "Clair-obscur" draws on the work of several thinkers – such as Giorgio Agamben or Karl Jaspers – whose reflections unfolded during what Hannah Arendt called “dark times” to perceive, despite everything, some glimmers of light.
The artists presented here are inspired by these reflections while also referring, to the great creators of artistic chiaroscuro, including Caravaggio, Georges de La Tour, Rembrandt, and Goya. This conference is an opportunity to explore the artistic and intellectual roots of this paradoxical concept.
Conference led by Des Mots et Des Arts, with Paul Bernard-Nouraud, PhD in Art History, EHESS and University Paris I.
15 June – Poetic or Political Chiaroscuro?
Chiaroscuro occupies a paradoxical position in art: contrast, rupture, or, conversely, harmony, it remains fully committed to the realm of art. Yet the art of chiaroscuro, as practiced by many modern and contemporary artists exhibited at the Bourse de Commerce, also carries a political dimension.
This conference explores this aspect through the works of Jean Dubuffet, Alberto Giacometti, and Germaine Richier, created in the shadow of the Second World War, as well as works confronting contemporary crises by Frank Bowling, Bruce Conner, Bruce Nauman, Fujiko Nakaya, and Alina Szapocznikow.
Conference led by Des Mots et Des Arts, with Paul Bernard-Nouraud, PhD in Art History, EHESS and University Paris I.
6 July – Revelations: A Dive into the Archaisms of "Clair-obscur"
"Historians […] know that there is a secret secret affinity between the archaic and the modern, not only because the most archaic forms seem to exercise a particular fascination on the present, but above all because the key to the modern is hidden in the immemorial and the prehistoric […]. It is in this sense that one can say that the entry point to the present necessarily takes the form of an archeology" (Giorgio Agamben).
This conference proposes to explore the Italian philosopher’s thesis through the works in the exhibition: Jean Dubuffet’s materiality and taste for soil, the ritualised practices of Pierre Huyghe, Laura Lamiel’s museographic devices, and Danh Vō’s process of fragmentation.
Conference led by Des Mots et Des Arts, with Audrey Norcia, PhD in Contemporary Art History and Exhibition Curator.