We can still hear the deconstructed sounds of Karolina Markiewicz and Pascal Piron's exhibition, which has just ended, as Kevin Muhlen, director of the Casino Luxembourg, presents the programme he has put together for 2022. The programme is a continuation of the work carried out in recent years, where the activities begun with certain artists, with music having a privileged place, but also with new faces and ways of presenting exhibitions.
The next exhibition to open will be by Fabien Giraud and Raphaël Siboni, who are now regulars at the Casino - this will be their third exhibit at the rue Notred Dame contemporary arts venue . After the exhibition The Unmanned in 2014 and 2045-1542 (A History of Computation) in 2018, the two French artists will this year present The Everted Capital (Katabasis) from 2 April to 4 September. It is the third and final part of their evolving project The Unmanned and will feature all the films and objects that make up The Everted Capital, as well as being the location for the filming of the epilogue of the series.
This will be followed by an exhibition by Adrien Vescovi (1 October - 29 January 2023), who will create a work of art for the occasion, installed on the façade of the Casino. The artist uses large pieces of dyed fabric to create installations of suspended canvases that react with their environment. "With Adrien Vescovi's intervention, the exhibition is turned upside down, the main work being installed outside and serving as a call to action to be deployed later inside the rooms," explains Kevin Muhlen. "It is also an opportunity to reinterpret the passers-by in the neighbourhood, which has changed a lot in recent months," emphasises Stilbé Schroeder, curator of the exhibition.
In autumn, Sound without Music will be inaugurated (5 September-27 November). This hybrid project combines performances, concerts and other forms of the presence of sound in contemporary creation. The exhibition will evolve throughout its presentation, not being in any way fixed in its form. It will offer a reflection on the role and materiality of sound, on the different sound textures in contemporary art, and on the various ways of hearing or listening to sound.
Finally, the year will close with the exhibition The Never Never by Jeremy Hutchison (3 December - 29 January 2023). The form of the exhibition has not yet been determined, but it will be based on a short film that the artist made in Athens, which includes a performative section.
Excerpt from a performance from Jeremy Hutchison's project The Never Never. (Photo: Jeremy Hutchison)
In addition, Casino Luxembourg has invited young artist Louisa Clement to continue her project The Representative. This is a series of life-size dolls that are, in fact, copies of the artist's body. These dolls, made in collaboration with a Chinese company specialising in the production of "real dolls", are equipped with artificial intelligence, which allows each doll to develop its own character according to the interactions it has with visitors. Through this subversive object, the artist questions the image and role of the artist, but also that of the institution, the art market, the collector... This project, which will develop over time, will certainly take several forms that have yet to be determined.
An opening to research
In parallel with the exhibition programme, the Casino is also developing a programme more in line with research and the young artistic scene, which has emerged from the region's art schools. "We take advantage of the Casino Display's space to explore all the potential that exists with students and teachers involved in the art schools located nearby," explains Kevin Muhlen. "We provide them with an opening to professionalisation and we also lay the foundations for a reflection on a future art school in Luxembourg." In this perspective the Casino is proposing Woven in Vegetal Fabric: On Plant Becomings, a research unit to "reflect together on the concept of 'becoming' from a phytocentric point of view", led by Charles Rouleau.
Then, from March, it will be Lynn Klemmer's turn to take over. This young artist participated in the Triennale Jeune Création and will take advantage of the residency offered by Casino Luxembourg to explore and develop "an artistic approach that is interested in the relationship we have with digital technologies such as artificial intelligence, computers, interfaces, social media and algorithms,” explains the artist.
Lynn Klemmer, Head in the Clouds exhibition viewed at Les Rotondes in the context of Brave New World Order - Triennale Jeune Création (Rotondes and Casino Luxembourg), 2021. (Photo: Andrés Lejona/Maison Moderne)
As part of Esch2022, a collaboration has been established between the Casino and the Ecole nationale supérieure d'art et de design in Nancy (Ensad). For its post-master's programme, the Offshore School, Ensad usually sends its students to Shanghai to experience a completely different cultural universe. Given the current sanitary conditions, this year’s visit will not be to China, but to Luxembourg where the Casino will serve as a base camp for thinking up a project that will subsequently be presented in Belval, where a blast furnace sold in 1995 to the Chinese was reinstalled in Kunming... a city twinned with Nancy!