Vis-à-Vis des genres

Trying to understand the current criteria used to rate artistic creation can lead us to a simple question (which implies much more than it seems at a first glance): Has contemporary art become classical?
Vis à vis des Genres is an exhibition that aims to highlight the process of conception of genres in today’s art.
Four young artists using different media will portray the question of how contemporary art may be categorized, and how we inherited the classification of “genres”, commonly related to André Félibien’s theories written in the 17th century.
It is fundamental to put in place an ideational dialogue rather than a simple depiction, the title Vis-à-vis des Genres includes itself both ideas of a face to face between genres and of an attitude towards the concept of genre (“vis-à-vis” can be translated in the two ways). Portraits, still lifes, landscapes, mythological and historical paintings were once classified one among another, some of them considered as lower genres.
Contemporary artists have to increasingly absorb the medias appearing simultaneously with technological progressions, though they remain linked to more traditional artistic practices. The young artists exhibiting here may be connected through their belonging to contemporary art, which may appear to develop into a new class of art or category.

The art pieces exhibited will be organized as a meeting between different ways of making and different artistic aims, with some oil paintings, photographs, installations and videos laid around in the Camille Claudel Hall. At the same time, a symposium will take place about the exhibition theme, in order to expand the number of paths brought by the exhibition.