Exhibition Making LUMA Arles Hans Ulrich Obrist Archives Chapter 4 Gustav Metzger

Hans Ulrich Obrist Archives Chapter 4: Gustav Metzger
All of Us Together
Marina Abramović
Maria Thereza Alves
John Armleder
Bianca Bondi
Judy Chicago
Abraham Cruzvillegas
Minerva Cuevas
Mimosa Echard
Cerith Wyn Evans
Liam Gillick
The Institute of Queer Ecology
Joan Jonas
Koo Jeong A
Jean-Jacques Lebel
London Fieldworks (Bruce Gilchrist & Jo Joelson)
Paul McCarthy
Gustav Metzger
Yoko Ono
Cornelia Parker
Benoît Piéron
Pedro Reyes
IX Shells
Martine Syms
Diana Thater
Rirkrit Tiravanija
Natsuko Uchino

30.06.2024—04.05.2025
Organised by Hans Ulrich Obrist (Senior Advisor), Vassilis Oikonomopoulos (Director of Exhibitions and Programs) and Arthur Fouray (Archivist and Curator) in close collaboration with the Gustav Metzger Foundation
With the assistance of Lucas Jacques-Witz (Assistant Curator)

LUMA Arles
Living Archives Programme
Arles, France
https://www.luma.org/en/arles/our-program/event/gustav-metzger-chacun-de-nous
Photographs: Victor & Simon, Grégoire d’Ablon

‘All of Us Together’
Gustav Metzger, October 2014

For its fourth chapter, the Hans Ulrich Obrist Archives at LUMA Arles presents an exploration of the work of Gustav Metzger (born 10 April 1926 in Nuremberg, passed away on 1 March 2017 in London), an essential figure for ecology and activism in the arts. Drawing upon a two-decade-long friendship between Metzger and Obrist, the exhibition unfolds over two levels, providing both an immersion into never-before-seen archives and a panorama of the artist’s most iconic works, the pertinence of which is ever more urgent.

During their first studio visit in 1991 in Glasgow, Douglas Gordon drew Hans Ulrich Obrist’s attention to the works of Gustav Metzger and John Latham, both pioneers and indispensable inspirations for a then-emerging generation of artists in the United Kingdom. After consulting Norman Rosenthal’s catalogue of Art Into Society – Society Into Art (1974), which featured his contribution, a statement calling for Years without Art (1977–1980), Obrist attempted to reach Metzger by all available means.

He would find himself waiting until Metzger, one day, came to the Serpentine Gallery to see him and Julia Peyton-Jones during the first iteration of the exhibition Take Me (I’m Yours) in 1995. After Metzger’s Historic Photographs were featured in Damaged Nature: Two New Works and Documents in 1995 at the independent space workfortheeyetodo in London, Suzanne Pagé, Laurence Bossé and Hans Ulrich Obrist added these works to life/live: la scène artistique au Royaume-Uni en 1996, de nouvelles aventures [life/live: the artistic scene in the United Kingdom in 1996, new adventures, 1996], at the ARC – Musée d’Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris.

Their first recorded conversation took place in 1997 at the legendary Café Cosmo, a sanctuary for political exiles during the conflicts of the 20th century in London. Their dialogue continuously unveiled Metzger’s commitment and activist principles. In 1999, Barbara Vanderlinden and Obrist involved him in the project inspired by Bruno Latour, Laboratorium, integrating scientists and artists at the Provinciaal Fotografie Museum in Antwerp. There, Metzger reactivated the work Drop on Hotplate (1968/2024), a basic everyday hotplate elevated to chest height on a metal base, onto which a drop of water is slowly released, causing a spontaneous and random reaction in response to the heat.

Their bond intensified when Hans Ulrich Obrist settled in London. Metzger was a key participant in the Serpentine’s first marathon, the Interview Marathon (2006), conceived with Rem Koolhaas. Cultivating mystery, Metzger used red telephone boxes as his means of communication. Consequently, the Serpentine somewhat became his post office box during his retrospective Decades: 1959–2009 in 2009. He later co-curated there the Extinction Marathon: Visions for the Future in 2014.

The sentence ‘All of us together’, the title of this exhibition, was composed in 2014 for Hans Ulrich Obrist’s Handwriting Project. It is part of a collection of notes titled Extinction Handwritings by Metzger. The exhibition compiles the questions Metzger provoked during his life and career, manifested in the presentation of archival material through around ten hours of interviews, handwritten and printed documents, alongside personal notes and other ephemera. The archival presentation complements an in-depth exhibition that brings together works such as Liquid Crystal Environment (1965/2024) and Mass Media: Today and Yesterday (1971/2024). Posters created in tribute to Metzger highlight the significance of his work and its importance in confronting the crises of today and tomorrow. This exhibition, posthumously, is a way to convey the inspiration Metzger felt for Luc Hoffmann’s way of protecting the climate and the bioregion of the Camargue. He always dreamed of meeting the co-founder and first president of the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) and founder of the Tour du Valat research centre in the Camargue. Like Luc Hoffmann (1923–2016), Gustav Metzger will also remain, through his works and his thoughts, a cornerstone of the ecological movements of the 20th and 21st centuries.

From the postcards of his childhood to the artists’ editions of the World Soup [The Kitchen Show] catalogue, the artists’ postcards of Hotel Carlton Palace: Chambre 763 in 1993, the Do It project (1993–), Take Me (I’m Yours) (1995–), to the artists’ posters of Utopia Station in 2003 and the artists’ posters of the IT’S URGENT project produced by LUMA between 2019 and 2020. Following the previous tributes from artists to Édouard Glissant and Agnès Varda included in the exhibitions of Hans Ulrich Obrist Archives at LUMA Arles and LUMA Westbau (2021–2024), the fourth chapter dedicated to Metzger presents homages by Marina Abramović, Maria Thereza Alves, John Armleder, Bianca Bondi, Judy Chicago, Abraham Cruzvillegas, Minerva Cuevas, Mimosa Echard, Cerith Wyn Evans, Liam Gillick, Joan Jonas, Koo Jeong A, Jean-Jacques Lebel, London Fieldworks (Bruce Gilchrist and Jo Joelson), Paul McCarthy, Yoko Ono, Cornelia Parker, Benoît Piéron, Pedro Reyes, IX Shells, Martine Syms, Diana Thater, Rirkrit Tiravanija, The Institute of Queer Ecology, and Natsuko Uchino.

Acknowledgements

Hans Ulrich Obrist and Arthur Fouray wish to thank Maja Hoffmann for her vision and passion for archives; and extend their gratitude to Vassilis Oikonomopoulos, Mustapha Bouhayati, Matthieu Humery, Christophe Danzin, Simon Castets, Anna von Brühl, Friedrich von Brühl, Lucas Jacques-Witz and the LUMA Dream Team.

First and foremost, we wish to extend a heartfelt thank you to Leanne Dmyterko and Ula Dajerling, Co-directors and Curators of The Gustav Metzger Foundation, as well as the artists who participated in the exhibition: Marina Abramović, Maria Thereza Alves, John Armleder, Bianca Bondi, Judy Chicago, Abraham Cruzvillegas, Minerva Cuevas, Mimosa Echard, Cerith Wyn Evans, Liam Gillick, Joan Jonas, Koo Jeong A, Jean-Jacques Lebel, London Fieldworks (Bruce Gilchrist and Jo Joelson), Paul McCarthy, Yoko Ono, Cornelia Parker, Benoît Piéron, Pedro Reyes, IX Shells, Martine Syms, Diana Thater, Rirkrit Tiravanija, The Institute of Queer Ecology, and Natsuko Uchino.

Our special thanks go to Luz Gyalui and the LUMA Arles production team, especially Barbara Blanc, Laure Breton, Laura Briganti, Giulia Facchini, Nicolas Havette, Juliette Kernin, Jihye Kim, Camille Lim Koun, Laura Majan, François Mallinjod, Nicolas Pène and Milo Penel; to Dimitri Bruni, Manuel Krebs, and Ludovic Varone of NORM for the layout of Gustav Metzger’s Post-it notes; to Amélie Busi and the LUMA Arles communication team, Christine Denamur and Maria Luisa Rojano, for the realisation of the exhibition poster and the signage; to Luana Terrasse for coordination and proofreading the texts and Aude Ramanana-Rahary for the printing supervision. Many thanks also to Max Shackleton, Producer, and Lorraine Two Testro, Head of Operations and Planning for Hans Ulrich Obrist; James Torbett for the engineering supervision of the Liquid Crystals and Drop on Hotplate, to the Serpentine team; to agnès b., Élodie Cazes, William Massey and the team of the Fonds de dotation agnès b.; to Sintagma, and in particular Ana Beatriz Gonçalves, Rosário Valadas Vieira and Renato Barcelos, for the subtitling of archival videos; to Jesus Plaëttner, for the mastering and audio restoration of archival videos; to Thibault Verdon and the IDzia team, Damien Poggiali, Arthur Aigon, Mathieu Lorant, Philippe Arnaud, Pascal Picard, for the audiovisual set-up; Gilles Pennegaggi and all the exhibition installation teams, in particular Miren Berecibar, Sarah Charmet, Facundo Gastaldi, Jérôme Gréboval, Charles Olivier Ardouin, Jean Marques, Lény Papalardo, Jules Pinhede, Olivier Quiquerez for the construction and the hanging and Xavier Ressegand; Olivier Fisher for the carpentry; Laurie Dall’Ava for the condition reports; to Œil de Lynx for the wallpaper installation; Atelier SHL for the prints, Tchikebe for the framing; Acoplast for the signage and label elements; Vito Enseignes for the neon, Laure Campredon for the sewing; Atelier César for the metal; Séries for the painting; Jérôme Courcier for construction; Calvo Électricité for the electric works; and finally, to all those who have participated in the development of the exhibition, including Claire Charrier, Mathieu Copeland, Philippe Decrauzat, Koo Jeong A, Adèle Koechlin, Manuella Vaney and Josh Willdigg.
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