Ben signs everything at the Maillol Museum

After 18 months of closure, the Maillol Museum reopens its doors this fall with the inaugural”Everything is Art?” exhibition. dedicated to Ben Vautier, a major figure on the contemporary art scene.

Through his brief mantras and observations of the world around him, Ben perpetuates the idea that a work of art is recognizable not by its form but by its signature, in the tradition of Marcel Duchamp and his ready-mades. A pioneer of”street actions”, it has become one of the pillars of the Fluxus movement in Europe.

On the programme of this exploration of his creation, more than 200 works from both his personal and private collections trace the artistic career of the Franco-Swiss Benjamin Vautier, alias Ben, who”introduced the message into artistic writing” according to his own analysis since the 1950s.

Both historical and contemporary,”Everything is art?” begins under the direction of curator Andres Pardey and traces Ben’s beginnings from 1958 to 1978. First writings, street actions, the great moments of Fluxus in Nice, the identity of the artist as a theoretician and philosopher of art settles down. Then, Ben was given carte blanche for the contemporary part, notably a series of unpublished installations inspired by the works of Aristide Maillol.

In the continuation of the retrospective dedicated to him at the Tinguely Museum in Basel, partner of the exhibition, it is a first for the artist but also for Culturespaces, to whom the Dina Vierny Foundation has entrusted the temporary exhibitions of a museum that will now resume its place as an essential actor in the Parisian artistic and cultural scene.

“Is everything art?” Ben at the Maillol Museum
From September 14, 2016 to January 15, 2017