a giant work by the artist Sylvie Selig presented for the first time in Lyon

140 meters of canvas undulating over the entire first floor of the museum, painted in three years by Sylvie Selig, a quicksilver magician born in 1941, a saga whose unfolding captivates us. The installation required feats on the part of the technical team. It was a bit of a crazy bet.says Isabelle Bertolotti, director of macLyon, which we have taken up with enthusiasm and of which we are very proud. The work comprises fourteen ten-metre rolls, we had to make clever calculations to unroll it in the entire space, and to design a fluid path for the visitor. It was necessary to maintain the sensation of floating, the drive of a journey on the waves ».

Funny expedition

Three characters, two boys, a girl, a boat. The author warns from the first scene: ” There are three of them. They are there, simply, standing straight, stiff and stiff, side by side near a beached canoe. It would be morning. »

Here we go! No one falls into the water. Still, there are twists and turns, stopovers, stages, shouting matches, mockery, anger. Hesitant explorers, the ” Boys ” are not cowards. “ They are, however, not heroes either. ” In short, boys like all men. For them to commit, they have to be encouraged to do so… Who does that? ” The girl. If she has wings, she is definitely not an angel. ” And she cries out: ” Come on cowboys, try to stand out a little! »

Added to this unlikely trio is ” The Sad Dog Who Wiggles His Tango Tail “. And, excuse me for saying so, 140 characters, artists, painters, sculptors, architects, designers. For the most part, there is no need to see their portrait, their works speak for them. They appear at the bend of a grove, a bend in the river, stranded on a bank, on the side of a hill. Yayoi Kusama’s polka-dot pumpkins, Jeff Koons’ inflatable structures, Josef Beuys carrying his dead hare, Louise’s spider (Bourgeois), and then, Fernand Léger, Chilida, Yves Klein, James Ensor, Kiki Smith, Annette Messager… all involved in the vast fresco of art history, cited in random order with humor and poetry. Sylvie Selig often makes fun, gently. Of them and of herself. If there is one thing she has never done, it is take herself seriously.

A film that unfolds before our eyes

She works in sequence, canvas fixed between two steel uprights and unrolling little by little. Like those rolls of film that were once hung in cameras or like a film reel. This technical aspect is not the only resemblance of her art with cinema. Sylvie Selig conceives her stories as scripts, real story boards. Is this a reminder of her past as an illustrator, which she worked for over twenty years?

Sylvie’s life

Born in Nice in the middle of the war, high in Australia where her mother settled, very young she developed her gift for drawing. It’s simple, she only likes that. Studies in London, meets Tomi Ungerer in New York. She would like to spend her life painting but you have to live, and l’We prefer women illustrators, especially if they do figurative painting. Are books the work of ladies? Maybe so, but one day the lady has had enough and puts down her pencils to pick up her brushes again. She conjures up a world of cruel tales, a disturbing Alice in Wonderland that traverses scenarios where strange encounters abound, poetic and disconcerting.

This is not a trial run, Sylvie Selig has produced other stories. Route 66a canvas thirty meters long or Statelessa favorite of the curators of the 16th Lyon Biennale, 50 meters unrolled. The artist thinks big. Her energy is as considerable as her patience: she has waited a very long time for this enthusiastic recognition that curators, exhibition curators, critics are now lavishing on her. The press was unanimously won over. We are delighted.

« Weird Family »

You really have to immerse yourself in these hypnotic convolutions, recite to yourself in a whisper the bizarre texts that are like a litany. From time to time you turn around to look at a group of sculptures placed in a corner, even more curious, hybrid creatures that form what she calls her “Weird Family”, absolutely bizarre, totally fanciful. Or on embroideries, red thread on white linen, including one that is intended to spread as the embroiderer’s inspiration takes hold. A tapestry in progress… We smile, we laugh, we dream, we leave with images and ideas filling our minds. Above all, we don’t get bored for a single moment. And that’s something that is priceless.

« Sylvie Selig. River of no Return »
Lyon, museum of contemporary art
Until July 7th