Ben Vautier
Ben about Ben
5 December – 31 January 2014
The gallery will be open on Saturdays in December from 11 am to 6 pm
Ben is returning to the Marlborough Monaco gallery for another “out of limits” exposition. Mostly retrospective works but mixed with works from the 70s, boxed works, writings on art, small ideas, unbalanced portraits … an exposition of forty pieces which enchants us into the world of Ben whom seems to occupy the paysage since ever.
Thierry Raspail wrote about Ben: « Ben is indeed the man of the present, this meaning from a permanent prospective: breaking is not a loss of time but simply a small death… More than that, Ben worries the closing up, the categories, the convictions stopped, the immobility, the order, the taxation and in the end the history, is applied for himself in what can be definitive. If he puts in perspective it’s always with a criticized ending, for what is consolidated in the structure of the time. »
Ben, an autodidactic artist, is one of the most unconditional heirs of Marcel Duchamp. He observes and criticizes the different movements of contemporary art; however he doubts everything and even himself. Ben uses careful words for their significant value and therefore creates terse messages which he then uses to blame the misinformation, to defend the Occitan culture, seek the truth, put in danger his ego, discuss love, spread the polemic….
Benjamin Vautier, known as Ben, is born in Naples on 18 July 1935 from an Occitano Irish mother and Swiss French father. After few years traveling in Italy, Turkey, Egypt and Greece, he decides to move to Nice with his mother in 1949. At the age of 16, Ben begins to work in a library before opening his own shop which intrigued the local community as this was quickly known as the meeting point for artists.
In the late 50s after his meeting with Arman and Yves Klein, Ben began his eternal fight with art and the notion of art. During that time he considers that all art needs to bring an effect of shock and be innovating. In 1962, Ben is invited by Daniel Spoerri at the Misfits Fair in London where he spent 15 days in One’s gallery showroom. Whilst this event has been going on, he meets Georges Maciunas who invites him to join the Fluxus group. From 1963 to 1966 Ben gives the importance to the notion of life-art, he puts to play actions in the streets and acts out concerts from Fluxus (Total Theater), he travels around Europe in an old Citroen 2CV and creates a gallery in the lower balcony of his shop. Between 1966 and 1970, he privileges an art attitude and creates gestures. After the 70s, Ben’s expositions don’t stop multiplying in Europe, especially in Switzerland, in Germany, in Italy and in Holland and he doesn’t cease to discover other creative ways for example: photography, video and the assemblage of objects.
His works are exposed in public collections for instance: Le Centre Pompidou and the City Museum of Modern Art Paris, The Stedelijk Museum of Amsterdam, The Walker Art Center of Minneapolis, Luzern Museum in Switzerland. Amongst these recent expositions, the Museum of Contemporary Art of Lyon dedicates in 2010 a full size retrospective Ben, strip-tease intégrale. In 2013 he presents at the Foundation Du Doute de Blois, a project gathering 50 artists where the Fluxus spirit rules, a unique place open to forms of art.
During the exposition a catalogue will be signed by Philippe Piguet.