France/Grand Est: The neon lights of Cerith Wyn Evans, “something exceptional” to see in Metz

PublishedNovember 1, 2024, 5.20pm

METZ – An invitation to “intimate choreography”, according to the vibrations: the Welsh artist Cerith Wyn Evans takes possession of the Center Pompidou-Metz from Friday, with a sensory exhibition.

An invitation to “intimate choreography”, according to the vibrations: the Welsh artist Cerith Wyn Evans takes possession of the Center Pompidou-Metz from Friday, with a sensory exhibition. “Cerith Wyn Evans. “Lights borrowed from Metz” is the artist’s first solo exhibition in a French institution since 2006 and his monograph at the Museum of Modern Art in Paris. He collected many of his sculptures there: neon tubes with abstract shapes, sometimes symmetrical, most often anarchic, which light up and go out randomly. Poetic diversion of an object from the modern world in pale light.

The artist, born in 1958, made his debut in the world of experimental cinema, before discovering conceptual art, particularly sculpture and installations. He is interested in glass, and makes his works resonate with musical compositions. For example, we see “Mantra”, his work made up of two hand-blown Murano glass chandeliers. The lights turn on and off while replaying a piano recording. As soon as you enter the building, plants and two huge transparent columns, housing unlit bulbs, are visible.

They won't light up: these works were designed in 2010 with incandescent bulbs which are now obsolete. The columns “represent the passage of time, planned obsolescence, the temporality of technologies in dialogue with the trees,” comments Zoé Stillpass, curator of the exhibition.

The atmosphere is quite different on the third floor, in the gallery that Cerith Wyn Evans has taken over: columns, similar to those on the ground floor, light up, thanks to LEDs, to the rhythm of breathing. The vast gallery offers, on either side, immense bay windows allowing the monuments of Metz to resonate, in particular its imposing cathedral with its green roof recognizable in the distance. The walls, along the length of the room, have been entirely covered with mirrors, which can also maintain the “illusion” and recall, among other things, elevators “where people are surrounded by mirrors and take photos of themselves,” confides the artist.

This space is rather intended as a “strolling garden”, where the spectator discovers, at his leisure, the luminous and musical works which are distributed throughout the space, without any dividing wall. Certain symphonies are also played on the piano by the artist himself. The image of the garden was also desired by the artist, passionate about Japan, who travels there very often. “By being in the middle of the gardens, I was able to nourish myself in a spiritual way. This is what I wanted to bring to Metz,” he explains.

This exhibition has been in the works at the Center Pompidou-Metz for several years, explains its director Chiara Parisi. In 2020, in the middle of a pandemic, she sent an invitation to the artist. “A long discussion” followed after he had refused three times previously to come to Metz, she recalls. Months, years of work have generated “something exceptional,” says Ms. Parisi, describing Cerith Wyn Evans as a “marvel of precision and invention.” According to her, he delivers “a self-portrait” by creating a dialogue between old and recent works, which the visitor will have to “tame”.

Cerith Wyn Evans declares that she is “a little allergic to the explanation and interpretation” of her work but recognizes that the vocation of this exhibition is to invite visitors to an “intimate choreography” according to the vibrations: those of the light, but also those of the melodies which accompany several objects in this journey. The large space left to daylight also offers a different vision of the exhibition, depending on the weather or the time of visit. The exhibition is visible until April 14, 2025.

Are you already following us on WhatsApp?