Never before has a Parisian palace had a history so closely linked to art! Since its creation, Hôtel Le Meurice has cultivated and enriched ever-stronger ties with a variety of artists. From Rudyard Kipling to François Mauriac, via Arletty and the no less famous Florence Gould, who organized literary salons there, the cream of contemporary artists have enjoyed a passionate relationship with the Palace. More recently, designers Viktor & Rolf celebrated the fifth anniversary of their Flowerbomb fragrance at the Palace.
Le Dali restaurant - copyright Francois Marechal
But if one artist were to define the hotel’s love affair with art, it would undoubtedly be Salvador Dalí. For over thirty years, the artist resided here for one month a year, leaving a trail of original anecdotes and countless sources of inspiration in his wake.
The Hôtel Le Meurice, a corporate patron, is encouraging contemporary creation more than ever through the international prize it has created: the Prix Meurice pour l’Art Contemporain, worth €10,000 for an emerging artist on the French scene and €10,000 for the gallery representing him, in order to promote his work throughout the world.
Les membres du jury
Jean-Charles de Castelbajac, Patron of the Prix Meurice, and a jury comprising Franka Holtzmann, General Manager of Hôtel Le Meurice and President of the Jury, Montserrat Aguer, Director of the Centre d’Etudes Daliniennes, Colette Barbier, Director of the Fondation Ricard, Philippe Dagen, writer and art critic, Jennifer Flay, Director of the FIAC, Marta Gili, Director of the Jeu de Paume, Henri Loyrette, President of the Louvre, and Marc-Olivier Wahler, Director of the Palais de Tokyo, selected eight finalists from among the forty contemporary artists submitted.
Wilfrid Almendra
Wilfid Almendra (Galerie Bugada & Cargnel), inspired by the aestheticism of the French suburbs, proposed an installation combining sculpture and graphic works to reveal the way in which Japanese urban planning and architecture combine tradition and modernity, and thus question the future of that country’s suburban utopias. The Concrete Garden sculptures, inexpensive reproductions of classical statues on marble pedestals, were salvaged from suburban gardens.
Eric Baudart devant une de ses oeuvres
Eric Baudart (Galerie Chez Valentin), winner of the 2007 Gruppo Campari Prize for young French artists, has proposed the Atmosphères project, based on the principle of property transfer (taken in the sense of “physical” properties). Five separate objects – a hairdryer, a fan, a drill, a refrigerator and a TV set – are immersed in aquariums containing oil. This change of environment, with the resulting appearance of tensio-active forces, creates the conditions of an observation chamber for a hypothetical scientific experiment: ” I develop an instinctive practice with things that surround me, with the aim of making forms appear as representative or constituent elements of a kind of elementary cement of the world. ”
Julien Berthier
Julien Berthier (Galerie Georges Philippe & Nathalie Vallois), who likes to highlight failed attempts to improve our world, has proposed Monstres, a temporary public sculpture in bronze, perpetuating piles of arbitrarily discarded objects in cities.
Dominique Blais
Dominique Blais (Galerie Xippas) proposed Jishinda (seismic wave in Japanese), continuing her exploration of the territories of the infinitesimal and the in-between. These ceramic imprints of earthquake sound frequencies constitute a form of “crystallization of danger”.
Ingrid Luche
Ingrid Luche (Galerie Air de Paris) continues her work on dimensions and perception, through which she recomposes a manipulated context, fragmented by the process of memory. Her Bassin Olive, a basin sculpture in polished faux black stone, is fed by a jet of water maintaining a constant water level.
Ariane Michel
Ariane Michel (Galerie Jousse Entreprise) proposed The Screening, a projection performance in a wood not far from a town center, a veritable distorting mirror offering viewers the wild world’s point of view on what they are experiencing. The audience is led at night by torchlight to a clearing, where they discover a film taking place in an identical wood. Nocturnal animals watch them settle down to watch the film, and when the curious beasts approach, the audience recognizes itself.
Thierry Mouillé
Thierry Mouillé (Galerie Claudine Papillon), a director of seemingly eccentric, surrealistic objects, transforms, moves and transposes objects and their meanings. His Brass Space performance space, conceived as a space in motion, is based on the principle of hollow-tube tents that can be nested, moved and made available to instrumentalists and composers.
Bertrand Planes
Bertrand Planes (Galerie JTM and New Galerie), creator with Barbara Vaysse of the Emmaüs clothing label, hijacks everyday objects and practices to reveal new functionalities. His High Low Tech project turns 55 helium balloons fitted with LEDs into giant flying screens. The rays released by the LEDs diffuse into the balloon, producing a backlit sphere that stays aloft for around 8 hours before slowly descending, displaying text as the gas escapes.
Eric Baudart Lauréat de l'édition 2010-2011
Succeeding visual artist Renaud Auguste-Dormeuil, Eric Baudart was awarded the Prix Meurice pour l’Art Contemporain on October 11, 2010, in front of an audience including personalities from the worlds of art, fashion, media, entertainment and cinema, as well as art enthusiasts. Each artist was able to unveil part of his or her work as part of the FIAC’s off-site itinerary. Eric Baudart presented“Cryst“ combining resin and wood.
Jean-Charles de Castelbajac et Eric Baudart
The five objects in the Atmosphères project will be exhibited in part at the Fondation Ricard from January 6, 2011.
We hope that this award will help Eric Baudrat, a very humble artist who really listens, to shine all over the world.
Hotel le Meurice
228 rue de Rivoli 75001 Paris
www.lemeurice.com
Marie-Odile Radom
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