Nebula Act 1

 

"When the first mists rush into the circus from the end of the lake, the air becomes cloudy. The big firs merge. The light becomes gray. The contrasts are tempered. The reliefs are blurred. The image persists.

 

When at the top of the pass, the trucks leave the site definitively, the road winds. The parade begins. Sagittarius, Cassiopeia and Aldebaran are busy. The Grandes Platières welcome. The elevators crisscross. The color radiates.

 

When the second generation of visitors arrives in the middle of the forum, the Art Center opens. First, the lithographs. Then Calder, Niki de Saint Phalle, César or Sophie Calle. The works parade. Some are established. The light sparkles.

 

By the time they reach us, the nebulae are already far away. We perceive a past but persistent image, a pale although irradiating color, an eternally sparkling light."

 

Anthony Lenoir, January 2020

 

 

50 years ago, in January 1970, Sylvie Boissonnas opened an art center in the ski resort created a year earlier with her husband, Eric Boissonnas. The architect of Flaine is Marcel Breuer. This art center is a place mainly dedicated to contemporary art, with a video room and a library.

 

In 25 years, from January 1970 to September 1995, Sylvie Boissonnas organized more than 70 exhibitions, with a deliberate desire for eclecticism. According to her taste, her curiosity, her friendships, she went from "Cartoonists of humor" to "Ritual paintings of Mithila", from Max Ernst to Jean Dewasne, from Support-Surface to Di Rosa ...

 

Introducing art to skiers was one of his deep motivations, but his great work will undoubtedly remain the production of "Portraits in Altitudes", reports in the villages around Flaine in the 80s. (Eight months of reports over eight years from which a book, films and many photographs are taken). She undertook the installation of monumental works in the landscape including: The 3 Hexagons by Vasarely, the Boqueteau by Dubuffet and the Head of a Woman by Picasso! Eric and Sylvie Boissonnas also engaged - with the help of the Scaler Foundation - in acquisitions of works for the National Museum of Modern Art - Center Pompidou.

 

The Intercommunal Syndicate of Flaine took over the place in 2003, first under the name Center Culturel de Flaine, then again Center d 'Art de Flaine. A place always turned towards contemporary art, with a library and a video room, organizing 3 to 4 exhibitions per year, often around artist residences.

 

For its 50th anniversary, the Flaine Art Center offers Nébuleuse, an exhibition in two acts.

 

The first, like a retrospective of the Boissonnas years, is a dive into the video archives of the Art Center, from which emerge captures of images presented in the manner of a cabinet of curiosities, embellished with a seating area to view these movies.

 

The second is an invitation to artists, based on the video archives and the history of the Flaine Art Center.

 

Nebula: July 5 to August 28, 2020

 

 

Exhibition curator:

 

Geneviève Holvoët and Anthony Lenoir