« Technology is one of the keys to any artistic activity. It is both a means and an obstacle to the expression of our ideas. This tension is absolutely vital for any work of art. » This is how American video artist Bill Viola expresses himself.
The New Artistic Scene of Nice, an essay by Morgane Nannini, prefaced by Patrick Moya, offers us some insights into art and its modernity. The author addresses new technologies, perfectly echoing Bill Viola.
Art, the questioning of the consumer society, always focused on more, always more, without caring about the future, our planet’s future: what will we leave to our children? God asks Cain, “What have you done with your brother?” Here, we could ask man, each of us: what have we done for our earth? Faced with this alarming perspective, artists pose the question to themselves and to us, trying to make us aware.
In her work, Morgane Nannini retraces the history of art in Nice over the past fifty years, the Nice School deconstructing consumer goods, one thinks of the Tulip; then with the artists of the 21st century, we see them condemning junk food, the excessive use of social networks, the internet, from being a liberation, it has become an alienation. There is a return to basics, to the object as such, its utility, its materiality, its essence. The New Artistic Scene of Nice, a well-found title. Nice is both the stage, the school, the theater, and the exhibition walls.
Art, according to some, is comparable to a river whose waters are eternally renewed. This essay is a diagnosis of the state of art today on the Nice scene. Morgane Nannini reviews the artists and galleries and explains their work to us.
Her 120-page book is an achievement, painting the current picture of art in Nice. After Patrick Moya’s preface, it was necessary to conclude this work. Brother Yves Marie Lequin, chaplain of the artists, wrote the postface: “We must try to understand. We must understand each other and understand life.” Everything is said in two sentences: art, ultimately, is life.
Thierry Jan
