IF YOU LIKE PETIT FOURS and fancy bourgeois ladies, you can come on June 27th to Galeries Lafayette, on the 4th floor from 6 PM to 8:30 PM. You can see Place Masséna from the 4th floor; it’s very beautiful. I have placed 15 paintings on the walls including “beware of cultural indigestion” and “at this table everyone wears a Ben slip.”
IF YOU LIKE MY NEWSLETTER POEMS and think that I am the “greatest poet in Nice,” you can come buy “Itchiness,” a compilation of my poetic newsletters, published by “les mots et le reste” at Librairie Masséna in Nice, Rue Gioffredo, on July 7th starting at 6 PM.
IF YOU HAVE THE COURAGE TO DRIVE to Genoa in Italy, Catherine Gualco is exhibiting 13 of my paintings for a wealthy clientele; the exhibition is called “I love money but …”
IF YOU HAVE A PRIVATE PLANE TO TAKE YOU on June 28th to the Féria in Toulouse to see my Coc OC from Occitan rugby, know that my OC rooster is a demanding rooster, claiming that the Five Nations Cup should be transformed into the Eight Nations Cup, with Occitania, the Basque Country, and Catalonia in addition to Ireland, Scotland, Wales, and England.
IF YOU LIKE THE SEA AND WOULD LIKE to see me talk nonsense and take my first sea bath, you will soon be able to come to Castel Plage in Nice where I exhibit 5 panels and a tarp “Live Free”.
IF YOU WANT TO KNOW what else I’m preparing, it’s too much; you would quickly get indigestion. So, I have it all tucked away in the Ben on Ben section on my website. I’m going to decorate the Alzheimer’s Pavilion at Princess Grace Hospital, exhibit with the Fluxus group in September at the Benaki Museum in Athens, I’m preparing an exhibition at Catherine Issert’s on the theme of memory, trying to write a book on the ego in the world, etc.
IF NOW, AND I UNDERSTAND YOU, YOU ARE TIRED OF BEN (me too) in Nice, always on the 27th, a group exhibition of young artists from Poitiers at La Station, 26 Rue Molière. La Station is happy to invite you to the opening of the Off Modern exhibition on Wednesday, June 27th starting at 6 PM.
IF YOU WANT TO LOOK IN at Jérémie’s apartment, 8 Rue Offenbach, a beautiful exhibition, but I don’t remember the names.
INDIVIDUALS NICE DOTI AND SAPORI On June 26th, there will be a BABAROTAS evening, a series broadcast on FR 3 on Sundays at 7:55 PM, created by Serge DOTTI and Lorenzo SAPORI. 8 episodes will be aired, followed by a buffet. At the theater of photography, 27 Bd Dubouchage, Nice. Reservation: 0613052969
INDIVIDUALS NICE JOSEPH MOUTON Sunday, July 1st at 5 PM. Joseph Mouton will read some excerpts from Delenda Ouest, the latest work of which he is the author, and will gladly sign any copies presented to his pen (likely a sort of modern felt tip). Joseph Mouton was born in 1954 in Aix-en-Provence. He is a former student of the École Normale Supérieure, and since 1987, he has been teaching aesthetics at Villa Arson in Nice.
INDIVIDUALS NICE Stéphane Magnin “Surfaces for temporary encounters or a space ‘whose center is everywhere and whose circumference is nowhere’” I love this title. Opening Thursday, June 14th at 6 PM at the Dojo, exhibition from June 15th to September 21st, 2007.
INDIVIDUALS NICE FINCKER & LE LABO present Denis Brun “Dobl’kid on dekkadantzfloor” opening Saturday, June 30th at 6:30 PM. Curator: catherinemacchi@free.fr but where exactly is this famous abandoned house? – Villa Cameline 43, avenue Montplaisir, F – 06100 Nice, parking at Église Jeanne d’Arc. Contact: 06 60 98 49 88, helene@fincker.com
NICE TRAMWAY MOVING FORWARD George Brecht would have made a simple and clear bus stop: Wait for the tram, watch the women watch the men, my texts are ready.
INDIVIDUALS NICE MUSIC Exceptional concerts at La Station on Thursday, June 21, 2007, starting at 9 PM: Thee Dead Clodettes, Pif et Paf, Mambo Disease, John Badonna, on the turntables, and you’ll never see the music festival the same way again.
AND NOW SOME OTHER NEWS FROM AROUND THE WORLD, NEWS FROM THE ART BASEL FAIR Impressive. It’s no longer about culture; it’s a cultural industry. Top quality. The motto is: astonish at all costs. It gives complexes to small galleries and small collectors.
WITH DUCOROY FLUXUS IN GAP Ducoroy is giving a Fluxus concert at the Museum of Gap and is inaugurating his museum guide exhibition
INDIVIDUALS NICE FREDERIC ALTMAN AND NIVESE Altman is retired. How will he take it? The ego does not diminish with retirement
INDIVIDUALS RAYMOND HAINS Re-read by chance, great texts on Raymond Hains by Denise Kito, the anecdotes keep coming. INDIVIDUALS CECILE I don’t like Cécile Mainardi’s poetry, too literary, I like her voice, her eyes, her audacity.
INDIVIDUALS KLARA KRISTALOVA Exhibits at the Perrotin Gallery. What she does reminds me of Dominique Angel
INDIVIDUALS PAUL ARMAND GETTE whom I criticized in my last letter deserves a clarification. Beneath an outward appearance one hundred percent bourgeois hides a great rebel. Proof is he writes: “My tendency to complain doesn’t help me see things from a good perspective. I find the State, when it gets too involved in art, to be quite harmful. The people at the head of our national museum are lukewarm and muddled, and the artists don’t put much thought into their work. Certainly, I must be too demanding! In today’s atmosphere where obscurity gains ground, where good sentiments justify censorship, it might be time to question the role of art in the bland mixture politicians try to make us swallow. It’s also time to raise our voices and say that art is a space of freedom. State oversight is heavy, insidious, fanciful as was the sinister and botched ‘Force of Art’. Continued: No comment
PAUL ARMAND GETTE INDIVIDUALS KONSTRUCT Read online: “In Charlie Hebdo this week, they write this old fool Polac pays a fucking tribute to our national KOONS, since he threw his book in the trash. Yes, he talks about something ‘unspeakable’.”
INDIVIDUALS MRS. IRÈNE SCHÖNHOLZER from Gstaad. I wonder if her gallery in Gstaad still exists. She took two paintings from me that she never paid for. One day I will visit her to get back my two paintings. In any case, I have removed these two paintings from my catalog raisonné, so if she sold them, they will never be authenticated.
INDIVIDUALS LETTRISTS IN ITALY Received intimate and ultimate Lettrist collection about the Lettrists published by Zéro Grafita of Turin. Decidedly, it’s in Italy that the Lettrists are most appreciated.
THE GRAND SOLLERTIS OF TOULOUSE What exactly is happening at Sollertis in Toulouse? The Sollertis gallery is celebrating its 20th anniversary. In 1987, Brice Fauché inaugurated the exhibition space on Rue des Régans in Toulouse. With over 180 exhibitions and active participation in international fairs, the Sollertis gallery has made a name for itself on the contemporary art scene. For this twentieth anniversary, 10 artists and their guests will take over the gallery through 10 exhibitions. Sophie Calle and her guest, Bertrand Lavier, will inaugurate the first exhibition of this series of events on June 28, 2007. Sophie Calle / Bertrand Lavier From June 28 to September 1, 2007 Opening on Thursday, June 28, 2007, from 2 PM to 6 PM.
INDIVIDUALS MRS. THE MINISTER OF CULTURE As in rugby, in contemporary art, England is set to beat France 8 to 5, why? Because it presents with four dynamic teams: a Scottish dynamic, a Welsh dynamic, an English dynamic, an Irish dynamic. On the other side, the French dynamic has stifled the Occitan, Basque, Breton, and Catalan dynamics.
NICE CRIM’ ON THE PROM’ BERNARD DELOUPY, I started the book published by Grisoni, superbly distributed in all the tobacco shops, newsstands in Nice. It’s a book that can make for a fun game: get together with two or three people and have a contest to see who can find the most clichés. There are at least 10 per page. Even on the beach.
LET’S TALK A BIT ABOUT WHAT HAPPENED Cynthia Lemesle and Jean Philippe Roubaud very nice surrealistic exhibition at Soardi. Of course, it makes you think of Merith Openheim, but that’s not a problem.
JEAN MAS AT ARRAL I really liked the part where he breaks with the axe a speech that spins on a phonograph. I will add it to the Fluxus pieces repertoire
ANALYSIS OF THE SPEECH BY BERNAR VENET on France Culture, I was hooked. What class! How to bring all art history back to oneself, even Duchamp! That said, I always remember Bernar Venet the theorist challenging for hours my theory of the new (like Mr. Seguin’s goat), to finally admit defeat and confess that new things must be done
NICE CULTURE THE SUBSTATION I’m stirring the pot, big discussion in Nice. What should the Substation become? Leave it to Emily and Valentin as a workshop? Turn it into an international contemporary art center? Transform it into a parking lot? It would bring more. My position: Leave it to Valentin and Emily with permissions and transformations so they can receive people legally. Because for the moment, it’s thanks to them that this space comes to life
NICE CULTURE: PERADOTTO The three Peradotto’s—son, daughter, and father—have become essential on the cultural scene in Nice. The more contemporary art looks towards advertising and glamour, the more we need Peradotto.
NICE CULTURE INDIVIDUALS The director of the CHU is no longer in office. It’s a pity because he liked contemporary art as much as medicine. Let’s hope it continues
NICE CULTURE: SOSNO Whether you like it or not, Sosno’s square head has become as iconic as the Eiffel Tower.
