Press release

An exhibition by Marianne Derrien, Sarah Ihler-Meyer and Salim Santa Lucia.

With works by A.K. Burns, Alain Bublex, Alessandro Balteo-Yazbeck & Media Farzin, Alexandra Bircken, Andrea Zittel, Anita Molinero, Antoine Nessi, Atelier Van Lieshout, Bill Owens, Blair Thurman, BP, Cady Noland, Delphine Reist, Diego Bianchi, Ed Ruscha, François Dufeil, Frieda Toranzo Jaeger, Hans Haacke, Hugo Vessiller-Fonfreide, Julie Hascoët, Kristina Solomoukha, Laurent Faulon, Lothar Baumgarten, Lucie Stahl, Malala Andrialavidrazana, Marcel Devillers, Mark Leckey, Mark Lombardi, Martha Rosler, Mathis Altmann, Matthew Angelo Harrisson, Michael Sailstorfer, Mohamed Bourouissa, Monira Al Qadiri, O. Winston Link, Peter Buggenhout, Piero Gilardi, Randa Maroufi, Sara Sadik, Serge Lhermitte, Sophie Ristelhueber, Stéphanie Cherpin, Suzanne Husky, Tania Mouraud, Taryn Simon, Thomas Bayrle, Thomas Teurlai, Tobias Zielony, Willy Ronis.

Exploratory and forward-looking, the programme of temporary exhibitions continues to focus on the processes by which contemporary identities and bodies are constructed, in an attempt to reflect on reality and, ultimately, to propose new scenarios and new ways of inhabiting the world. It is in this context that MAC VAL is hosting the fourth episode of the ‘Humain Autonome’ touring project, curated by Marianne Derrien, Sarah Ihler-Meyer and Salim Santa Lucia.
Car, crate, sleeper, tank, jalopy, banger, wheels – the automobile is a paradoxical object. While some adore it, others condemn it. It is, at the very least, an ambiguous symbol, the cause and symptom of many of the crises we are going through (economic, societal, climatic, philosophical). Facilitating the movement of bodies and goods, exploration but also conquest, an instrument both of freedom and control, its use has shaped landscapes, bodies and minds. As the focus of many economic issues, the car is a non-place, half-private and half-public, a fantasy machine and an object of fetishism, sometimes personified. Its production lines, its operating systems, its links with fossil fuels, its myths and its unconscious are all analysed, deconstructed, reassessed and turned upside down by the artists in the exhibition. However, the point is not outright rejection. On the contrary, it’s about raising awareness and pointing out some of the aporias of our contemporary world.
The exhibition brings together some fifty artists from different generations, and is accompanied by a publication tracing the project in its entirety.